1944 Millington, Tennessee

The war was on and my Dad was stationed at the Naval Air Technical and Training Center in Millington, Tennessee. Mother and I had never been alone, prior to his going into the Navy, so she sold everything in Indiana, bought a house trailer and we followed Dad.

I had spent the first part of the sixth grade in Indiana and was now entering another new school. For all my school years I always seemed to be the tallest girl in my class and when I enrolled in the PE class in Millington, it was a foregone conclusion that I would be on the girl’s basketball team. The gym teacher said $6.75 should be brought to school by the following Monday for a gym suit – the royal blue one-piece gym suit with short sleeves and short pants and with gripper-snaps down the front. The school purchased them in quantity and received a wholesale price from a big department store in Memphis. When I presented Mother with the written information from the PE teacher regarding the required gym suit, Mother decided she would just go to Memphis that weekend and buy it direct.

Mary Underhill, didn’t have a gym suit either, so her Mother asked if Mom would get one for her too. (Mary was from a large family and they just couldn’t afford to pay a cent extra, either.) I checked with Mother as she left, to make sure she had the written instructions of where she was to go and what she was to buy… I had this achey-doubt that Mother was not comprehending the importance of getting the exact style suit requested.

The long day passed as I did the family ironing and watched my little brother and sister. Mother finally returned, laden with packages and very tired. Mom had missed her intended bus and she had to stand and wait – her feet were "killing" her. I wanted to tear into the packages, but Mother was determined that supper would be out of the way and the children bathed, before anything could be opened. It was when she finally allowed me to open the packages, that she said she had not found the store listed on the paper, (it was only the largest department store in the city) but she had gotten our gym suits at a much lower price. I opened the package and for the first time in my life, I was totally speechless!

The gym suit Mother had purchased was black with a camisole top, requiring a blouse to be worn underneath. The attached pants were bloomers made of wool serge, pleated on the waistband and cut full. The pants were long enough so they bloused down over the knees. They looked much like the pantalets of Colonial Days and later popularized by Amelia Bloomer.

Mary was a tiny girl beside me and her gym suit was a miniature of mine. Money was so scarce and our shopping time had passed. Rivers of tears would not help this situation. If we were going to play in the tournament, we had no choice but to wear these suits. The two of us looked like " Mutt & Jeff " from the comics, and with these funny out-dated gym suits we looked downright comical!

Time for the game arrived shortly and somehow we found the fortitude to wear those ancient gym suits. Those suits must have been in storage for 25 years as the folds in the fabric could not be washed or pressed out. That first game was hard and the gym was hot. The old elastic in the legs of the gym bloomers broke. Both Mary and I had one leg dragging down to our ankles as we played. We played to each other, (being able to get the ball through the distraction of our appearances) – we made lots of points, and we got lots of applause. The spectators thought we were playing a comedy act and somehow, we WON!

Great Stories Online 2000Ó TJ Greaton