Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Dignity (04/25/24)
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TITLE: Not a Stitch | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
04/29/24 -
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“Not a stitch,” was one of her favorite mutterings when there was a lack of dignity on display. I remember sitting in church one morning at the height of the mini-skirt era when a guest soloist stood up to sing. Grandmom’s jaw went slack, she wiped her glasses, and then said the infamous words right in the middle of ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands.’ Shaking her head, and staring at her own well-covered knees, she muttered, “not a stitch, not a stich.” A double mutter was serious.
I’m not sure what my parents were thinking that summer but they decided that an afternoon at the beach would be a breath of fresh air for grandmom. She lived in the basement suite of my uncle and aunt and hardly got out to do more than sniff a few flowers in the spring. Grandma still sported her cotton dress a few inches above the white socks covering her ankles. She had been a prairie girl and was solid on her feet. Until she took one look at the latest beachwear on the young women. It was like a gale-force wind almost knocked her over. I managed to catch her by the elbow as she teetered and I heard it plain and clear. “Not a stich, not a stich, not a stich.” That’s the only time I heard a triple whammy on the wickedness around us.
Getting out seemed to revive her a bit and so the following Saturday she suggested to my mother that we go to the new mall in town. “To get the boy an ice cream.”
Mom didn’t have to worry about seat belts as they weren’t around yet and so I tumbled around in the back seat as grandma sang an old hymn up front. We arrived at our destination and that’s when I heard the real reason for our trip. “I’ve had them knickers for thirty years and it’s about time I replaced them. Figured a new mall ought to have something decent for someone like me. I’m tired of looking through catalogs.”
Mom had me sit on a chair at the door as the two of them went into a store filled with frilly things that only women cared about. They weren’t in there long before grandma shuffled out and sat in the chair beside me. “Not a stich,” she muttered. Then she stared me down. “Don’t you be getting ideas about dressing your girl up in things that hide nothing and cost everything.”
I had no idea what she meant but I knew it had something to do with dignity for my future wife, and I didn’t even like girls then. Mother must have given in to temptation as she spent another ten minutes in the place and emerged with a small bag and a smile.
The last time we got my grandmom out of the house to anything safe was for a school football game that I was playing in. It was one of my first chances to bang and crash around with classmates and the real enemy from across town. Parents, aunts, uncles, and even a few grandpas and grandmas hunched over in the stands ready to cheer for any feeble effort we managed to exert. I never even imagined what having cheerleaders bouncing around might do to my grandma’s heart.
She was still muttering about it that night when we stopped by at a drive-in for a hamburger and ice cream. “Them girls always at these games?” she asked.
“What girls?” I asked.
“Them flouncy, bouncy, jouncy, girls screaming and distracting all the men from what’s happening on the field. “Not a stich,” she said. “Not a stich.”
It’s funny how things catch on. Long after grandma had passed on and I took my young family to the mission field my parents came for a supportive visit. We were in the village one day doing a medical safari when my daughter sat beside me. “Dad,” she said. “How come grandma keeps looking at the ladies and saying “not a stitch?”
“It’s a grandma thing,” I said.
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I was fortunate growing up as I had grandparents on both sides well into my 50's.
And was blessed to also have my great grandma on my dad's side.
I loved her to the moon and back, and she always was muttering about "young people" not having dignity! This touched my heart.
Well, done, she sounded like a special woman.
God Bless~
It was great fun and well written.
Right on topic in a fresh way.
Kudos.