Ina
looked up from the letter she was writing at the dining room table to see
Shirley Anne running down the east hill, coming home from school. Can't you just see her -- all bundled up in her winter coat and leggings, running as fast as her little legs would carry her. Ina correctly
guessed the little girl had news about the try-outs for the Christmas pageant.
“Aunt
Ina, Aunt Ina,” called the breathless child as she came through the kitchen
door. I’m to be the ‘Gingerbread Princess’ in the pageant. Teacher says I’ll
have a pretty costume – and everything.”
Oh
dear, thought Ina. Just where was this pretty costume to come from, and what
was entailed in “everything?” When she agreed to care for Shirley Anne, she
hadn’t realized it would be such a large draw on her resources. Nevertheless,
it had been years since Ina was involved in school activities, and she admitted
to herself that she was more than a little interested.
Just
then the telephone rang – one long and two shorts, wasn’t it? It was Miss
Johnson, the teacher. Would the two Mrs. Dobson (Aunt Ina and Aunt Bertha)
meet with her tomorrow to discuss costumes for the children’s pageant at the
school? Yes, Ina agreed with some reticence, not yet knowing what was expected of her. They arranged to meet at the
schoolhouse tomorrow at noon so as to avoid the early darkness after school.
Over
a snack of cookies and milk, Ina and Shirley Anne looked over the script for
the “Gingerbread Pageant.” Shirley Anne would have no trouble with her part. The
pageant was filled with music and recitations by all the children. But -- it was time to get started learning her lines. After supper Ina and Shirley Anne sat together in the big rocking chair to
begin the work. KW
3 comments:
Hmmm...I'm glad they've been invited to meet with the teacher because it doesn't seem quite right that she (teacher) should promise the girl a pretty costume that her family would have to supply. Surely these costumes could be put together with clothing scraped together from here and there.
In reality I'm sure that's what they did do -- scraped together from here and there. Still, I remember being in a few elementary school plays in the '50s, and my mother was enlisted to make my costume. Seems like I was a flower when I was in first grade, and my mother made a long floral print dress. I wore pantaloons under it, and she made me a pink broad-brimmed hat. I was really self-conscious in that costume. I didn't get it. Other little girls were flowers, too, and I suppose their mothers also made or purchased costumes. When I was in 6th grade, I was the children's nurse in a play, and my teacher borrowed a white nurse uniform from her daughter, who was a nurse.
That was probably fun to wear a real nurse's outfit!
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