Tupperware.

There is no doubt in my mind that saran wrap is off the table. For one thing, I become instantly irate the moment I try to tear it off the roll. So as a starting point for this process, we'll start there with No.

The next logical place I go to is foil and there are two positives to consider here. One - it's easy to tear off the roll, a stark contrast to the damned saran wrap. And Two - people outside of America pronounce it al-loo-MIN-ee-um instead of a-LOO-mi-num and there's some charm there that's hard to ignore. Plus, I make funeral potatoes. That's what they're called, or that's what we call them anyways. I stole the recipe out of a church basement in Parkman, where my family holds every luncheon after every loss. That one was for my grandma's sister. I didn't know her well and everyone said she was mean, but she was nice to my dad because everyone's nice to my dad because my dad is nice to everyone. Now those potatoes show up at every birthday and every holiday and they teeter somewhere between a request and a demand. They travel in a foil pan with foil on top, resting on a burnt up cookie sheet, wrapped in a bath towel I've had since my freshman year of college. The foil holds for exactly as long as the drive, which is all anyone ever asked of it. If I needed this fresh for just one day, I could probably call it quits and foil would be okay. But after that day, there's some dampness that will creep in and all the air would invade. And preserving this for one day is really pointless. I need this weeks from now. Maybe even months. I'm certain at times even years later.

There's bags of course. There's all kinds of bags. The plain sandwich bags that tuck in and fold over. The kind that my mom used to pack my sandwiches in when I was in grade school. God bless her she always had the meat to cheese ratio exactly right for a picky kid like me who didn't want to eat at all. But same problem as before. For a couple of hours that bag would do just fine but I need something to keep fresh much longer than one square of yellow cheese and two pieces of hard salami.

There's Zipper bags. The kind with the little square on top that glides above the smooth edges of a name brand bag. The bottom of those are always wider so you can stand them up when you fill it. Empty, they won't stand up at all. Just like when my grandparents used to make a visit. They came a long way and they didn't come often. A long trip to Warren to buy a gallon of hot dog sauce to take home, even though that meant driving a gallon of hot dog sauce back home. The whole thing was novelty shrouded in obligation and dusted with nostalgia. They double bagged it, thinking the extra effort would keep them safe, but somewhere on the way it burst through both layers anyway.

There's those other bags. You know the ones I mean? They are a little smaller and have a texture and a blue tint and when you squeeze the channels shut a yellow line and a blue line click together to make a green line. Sometimes at the holidays they put a little design across the bag. Like snowmen or trees or little red wreaths. These bags are perfect for your grandma's peanut butter cookies that have a hershey kiss on top. And what's really amazing about those bags is the hershey kiss never melts. But sometimes if you leave them in your freezer for a year or two, the freezer smell comes in and you can taste it on the back of your throat when you eat christmas cookies in august.

I might need an actual container for this. But should I use glass or plastic or some other kind of thing?

The plastic containers could work but I don't know what a BPA is or how to tell if it's free of it. There's that one giant plastic container in the pantry at my parents house that's held every watermelon I've ever eaten in 36 years. Surely that one has BPA's but the watermelon is just fine. On second thought, there's less seeds every year so maybe its not just fine.

There's butter tubs that end up filled with noodles after thanksgiving with my mother-in-law. But truthfully they never hold for more than twelve hours and I can't speak to the BPA's or the air tightness of it all. I just know on the few occasions that it's been opened and was full of actual butter…well. It's emotionally damaging to say the least.

I had some glass bowls at one point that might have done the trick. They had a cute halloween print all around the outside. Not too unlike my grandpa's bags filled with my grandma's cookies - but in my own sense of holiday cheer where they were covered with eyeballs and bats and skeletons. The bad part was they had a bamboo lid. The lid wasn't bad but what happened when I washed them in the dishwasher was. That's a thing about me though is I can't really be told what to do. I'll do the exact opposite just to remind myself I can't be told what to do. The packaging and the warning labels and the internet all said the same thing. Bamboo can't go in the dishwasher and you can't cover yourself in tattoos that match your bowls. The lids all cracked and my leg is black and gray anyway.

Have I considered a vacuum seal machine? The supplies seem expensive and I don't have a lot of counter space. But let's think about this. I'm trying to savor the feeling and the freshness of all my best days. Easy to open and take a quick taste and then return it to storage again. Would the vacuum squish it down too much? Make it full of wrinkles and feel like mush? Aside from that, it's probably too loud to sneak in and out of at 3AM when the world is quiet and I just need a little reminder of what it's all about.

Even if I find the right container. Easy to tear, strong lid, cute pattern on the outside, lets none of the stink in. Quiet to sneak open and quiet to sneak more in, and it holds every memory of every happy place I've ever been. Even if I find all of that. What if it's too big? What if I can't fill it up or carry it back in? Do I keep it in the garage, or the trunk of my car or in a great big fridge? Do I put it under my bed or in the closet next to my wedding dress?

Where do you save all your best memories and good days? In tin foil or baggies or plastic tubs with plastic lids? All the best things you've ever tasted and all the happiest places you've ever been? Do they stack neatly in a glass bowl and snuggle tightly against a bamboo lid? Can you see through the sides of it and glimpse all the places you ever lived? The ruffles from your socks, the black t shirts you spent your whole lives in? Can it hold everything you care about and leave enough room for the hopes you have of the future and what you'll care about then too? Can you crack it open just slightly when you notice the doom is settling back in? Is it big enough to jump inside of when you need your whole being to feel like it can swim through these memories and live them all over again?

Seeking recommendations for the tupperware that does it all. Must fit everything, fit everywhere, and not be too small. Dishwasher safe preferred.