I’ve accomplished a fair amount in life; college, home ownership, sports achievements, gainful employment…but one area eludes me. That would be using my cloth grocery bag.

I grew up in the ’70s, when there were plenty of grownups around who liked to recall how their mom/dad/grandma saved everything “because they grew up during the depression.” It must have been an awfully bad time because people saved everything from strings to buttons and re-soled their shoes. I heard these things so often that I came to appreciate not wasting food or clothing or buying things I didn’t need.

Then along comes the “green” movement. Waste not, want not redux. Like many people I’ve been reading about how to live with a smaller carbon footprint. I take my bike instead of the car whenever I can, I burn wood from fallen trees and I have a cloth grocery bag.

But why can’t I remember to take the bag with me to the store? I’m on the losing side of this equation. The last four trips to the store went like this: halfway to the store, “Doh! Forgot the bag.” Then I put the bag in the car so I wouldn’t forget, but alas, I’d be walking around the grocery and it’d hit me. “Doh, the bag is in the car.”

Once in December I actually had the bag with me. It sat in the child seat of the grocery cart as I surfed the aisles. I was proud as I stuffed my groceries in the bag. “Doing my part” I thought to myself.

That was four trips and 26 plastic bags ago.

It’s not like I’m trying to convert to cloth diapers, for Pete’s sake, I’m merely trying to change a habit. When they say “paper or plastic” I just want to be ready with my blue cloth bag, and so far the bag is taking on the properties of my umbrella–the one that’s supposed to be in my car for rain emergencies.

That brings me to my New Year’s Resolution:

I, Trek’s Director of Advocacy, pledge to use the cloth grocery bag in 2008. Stay tuned for the score on that one. The scoreboard resets tonight at 12:00a.m. Anyone care to join me in this quest?