Pajamas

 

Growing up in the Bronx in a two bedroom apartment meant I slept in the same room as my sister and brother. My sister, five years older than me and my brother, four years my senior slept in real twin beds while I slept in a chair bed. It was a chair by day and opened up into a narrow single bed at night. It was low to the ground, so it was not unusual to find my hand stroking the soft fur of a cat who had jumped into our open ground floor window. All this s not where my story is going. I have to get back to pajamas. While my sister, brother and even my current children all sleep in undershorts and tee shirts, I sleep in pajamas or nightgowns, proper nighttime apparel. Growing up, my mother made most of my clothes and my pajamas were truly one-of- a kind. Since we were relatively poor, momma was frugal and used leftover fabric to fashion my pajamas. The front could be stripes; the back, polka dots; each sleeve a different pattern and the bottom, equally diverse. One would certainly say they were unusual. What difference would such a hodgepodge make since nobody, outside my family would be seeing me? My brother and sister took no notice of me or my bedroom attire; to them I had always been the invisible baby sister.

One October, I was invited to my rich cousin Louise’s birthday party. She lived faraway (from the Bronx to Manhattan was considered faraway). I would be sleeping over in her luxurious doorman, elevator apartment After a splendid birthday party, her grandmother gave each of us a bath in the claw footed bathtub, dried in thick white large bath towels. Our Bronx towels were an assortment of frayed old towels. Louise dressed for bed in her soft pink pajamas, embroidered flowers adorned the collar and pockets; I dressed in my multicolored pajamas. The contrast was inescapable. My rich doctor aunt and her sister, in an admiring serious tone commented about how interesting my pajamas were, pretending flattery. Even as a child, I could read their negative sincerity. How I would have loved to own Louise’s pink, plush pajamas!! If only they were mine!!

P.S. Today my mishmash colored pajamas would make a fashion statement and might even find their way into Victoria’s Secret Intimate Apparel.

Ethyl Haber