"Give Me These Pants"

I will never forget that particular morning.  Ed and I were living with Ma and Pa, along with Ed’s three brothers, Clyde, Earl, and Benny.  I had only been in the family for a couple of months, and I was still trying to “know” his family.

The day before Ma had gone to town and bought a new pair of pants.  I did not know for which of her “boys” she had bought the pants.  Ed had already left for work, Pa had not yet come home from his night railroad job.  Ma was in the kitchen cooking breakfast for her “boys”.  It was getting close to the time they would be catching the bus for school. 

All three of them were in school.  I was in mine and Ed’s room which was next to the kitchen.  Suddenly, I heard a lot of fussing between tow of the boys.  And Ma got into the fuss, trying to make them shut up and behave.  I went to the door between the room I was in and the kitchen to see what was going on.  There was Clyde holding on and pulling on the bottom of one leg of the pair of pants Ma had bought the day before.  Benny had hold of the other leg of the pants, pulling and jerking it.  Both of them were hollering at each other, “Give me these pants, they are mine, and I am going to wear them today”.

Ma kept trying to make them shut up.  But they kept pulling and jerking on the pants.  Suddenly, the pants came apart at the crotch in the seam.  One more jerk, and there stood Clyde and Benny each holding one leg of the pants.  They looked at each other, then looked at the pant leg each was holding.  When they realized what had happened, they looked very sheepish.  Although it had been a loud fuss when it was going on, now it seemed very funny.  Needless to say, neither of them wore the new pants to school that day.

                                                                                    -  Lorine Ellard Jowers