One pair of Osh Kosh overalls, 8 messy toddlers, and one tiny child.
I have two friends who are sisters. They are two lovely Ojibway Women named Steph an Christina. We have raised our kids together and it has been a journey. Our best story came to it's conclusion (for us) this morning. This is our story of the traveling pants.
Once long ago (18 years this March) Steph gave birth to her first Child. As a young Mom of meager means (we all were back then) she scoured the thrift stores for nice baby clothes. One day when DC 1(S) was about 2 she bought him a pair of costly Osh Kosh overalls. She hoped she would get her monies worth.
After her DC 1(s) out grew these cute pants she passed them to her sister whose first child DC2(c) was just about the right size.
The two sisters thought it was so nice that their children were passing on these wonderful overalls. And after DC 2(c) had out grown them Steph's daughter DC 3(s) was turning two an so back the overalls came.
As DC 3(s) was out growing them the two sister talked about what to do next. Steph had been forcibly sterilized. Yep the government was still doing that to Native Women in the 1990's. Christina was single and the pants were still good!
And so the sisters talked about it and brought me the pants and told me their tale. Happy to be included I dressed Sunny Not - DC 4(i) in this story - in them. She wore them through thick and thin. And I laundered them with care.
The next child born in our little circles was SW, followed by Christina's little Rose 6 months later. But the flower was not so little and so she became DC 5(c). This was the first time that the pants traveled out of birth order. Then they came back to me for SW as DC 6(i).
Something else to add is that Steph bought the pants in a size 4. The sisters had fat babies. My oldest two were tall skinny babies.
From here the pants stayed with me as the sisters had no more children. Runner became DC 7(i). Ko-Ko who was (is) really tiny became the oldest wearer of the travelling overalls. She officially became DC 8(i) at age 6!!! -She is the one tiny child mentioned at the top.
We thought the story was over, but as you know I had one more baby up my tubes :)
The sisters were at home with me as I laboured and birthed Indy. During my early labour they asked me "do you still have the overalls?"
I laughed "Of course I still have them!!!!"
Today the circle completed itself for us three friends. Indy is wearing them, shoving the pockets full of little cars, enjoying the pockets. This pic is the one I took this morning and immediatly mms'ed my two friends. Indy is DC 9(i).
Of course now that DS 1(s) is 18 and one of us (to be nameless, but not me) will turn 40 (the other two not far behind), we realize our Grandma years are nearly here. To some of my readers this may seem young, but this is Indian Country and well, how else do you think we have the fastest growing population in Canada? I can only wonder what it will be like to pass these on to our grandchildren, or which of us will be a Grandmother first?
