Well, It Kept Us Busy, Anyway

When my father-in-law, Frank passed away 2 years ago, we all came to the same sudden conclusion:
We had nothing to wear.

The funeral was postponed due to family driving in from up north. The Rosary was in 2 nights. None of us had ever been to a Rosary so we didn't know what to wear. "Just dress as you would for a funeral or for church," we were told.

We still had nothing to wear.

So the whole lot of us packed in our cars and heading to the cheapest place we could think of... Wal-Mart. Like I've said before, there's not much else around here.

Let's see, it was me and Shawn, my sister Sheila and Bob, the eldest brother, Tim and Bob and Sheila's 4 kids, who were at the time ranging from age 3 to 11.

There we were in the so-called "discount" store, staring at mountains of clothes that we could neither afford, not fit into. We hollered at one another from the different departments. "What size shirt does Bob wear?!" came from one direction. "I found something that might fit Dylan!!" came from another corner.

We were a sight to to seen. The guys wanted suits since it was , after all, their father's funeral. None of had an idea what a suit cost, but we soon found out. We didn't find much at Wal-Mart so we headed to the mall where the price of a suit jacket was close to a house payment for some. We abandoned that idea and the guys settled for button up shirts, sweaters, ties, etc.

I myself ended up getting a pair of black pants that were much too tight. The eldest child, Dylan got a pair of slacks that he grew out of of in 27 minuets.

That night, we all reconvened at my mother-in-law's house. Our mission was complete. Since I was a presser at a dry cleaners, I was given the task of ironing while the others took on more appropriate tasks such as sitting down, eating, and talking.

So there I was at 11 pm hemming pants and ironing shirt cuffs while everyone finally got to relax a bit. But, it's what I did for a living and I was good and fast. Though, I must say that's it's much easier with an industrial press.

In my rush, I had the iron set on too high and accidentally scorched a tiny space on Dylan's slacks. But no matter. He out grew them in 27 minuets anyway.