Flour Sack Skirts

Growing up poor on the farm meant that all the girls in our
area wore gathered skirts, made by our Mama's on that old singer sewing
machine or by hand if they didn't have a machine.Every skirt had a
flower pattern most of them were roses giant roses, in reds, and
purples, and sometime blue roses. One look and everybody knew you were
wearing flour sack skirts.

Flour sacks, thats what
they made our circled tailed skirts out of. The farm women emptied the
sacks of flour into the large five gallon metal can in the kitchen.They
washed and saved the sacks until they had enough to make a skirt. Mama
would make them as full as possible for us.Now they were coming out
with stripped flour sacks,I really wanted to look different,all of the
farm kids in my class room were blond, blue eyed, and the same size.
There's no way anybody could have been picked out of a
lineup.

That blue stripped would make me different
from all the other kids.I just had to have it. One day I came in the
house and Mama was making the skirt for me.I was turning in circles,I
could see it in my mind starched stiff and ironed just so, me walking
into that room and all heads turning to admire the new
me.

First day of school I was trembling with
excitement, I knew I looked good.If I had a sweater, and a sweater
clasp, to hold it on over my shoulders it would have been perfect, but
this was good enough for me.

When the bus pulled up
at school I saw one girl going in with my skirt on. A bus pulled up
beside ours and another girl got out with my skirt on. I was sick, it
never crossed my mind that any one else would have that same pattern. I
couldn't say anything about it to Mama she wouldn't understand my need
to be different. I didn't understand it myself.

I
wasn't in any mood to hear the speech about how glad I outta be to have
clothes, and all them naked kids who didn't have any clothes. Today I
didn't want to feel guilty for something I couldn't help, Different
thats all I wanted