Family Memory (XII)

Growing up is unique for everyone. For me, I was short and scrawny (which leads to getting picked on quite a bit…). In 8th-9th grade, that changed. I gained a bunch of weight so I went from short and scrawny to short with a belly, so Mom had to go and buy me new pants since I couldn’t get into any of my others.

No more than a couple school weeks later, I get dressed, come down for breakfast, and Mom gives me that evil parent stank-eye. I had no idea why–I was just standing there. Clearly she figured I hadn’t paid attention to getting dressed and had put on an old pair of pants.

No–didn’t do that because the belly didn’t fit. The ones I had on though had a belly wide enough I needed a belt. She rolled her eyes, said “Bull shit” and told me to get real pants on. This confused me–because I HAD the new pants on. I told her that, so she got up, walked over to me and pointed out that the pants only came down to my ankle bone. I reiterated these were the new pants and they were loose to boot, so she grabbed my pants, tugged on the back (Moms, right?) and looked at the tag, uttering a line she picked up from my Grandma, “I’ll be shit.”…except Grandma always said ‘I be shit.’ with a more German conjugation.

See, I was wearing the new pants. I’d been sore for a few days and was told it was probably the flu. Nope–growing pains. In the space of a couple weeks, I grew 3-4 inches and all that pudge on my belly was gone…burned in growing me upwards (the pudge is back now to be fair). Over the course of that school year, I grew about six inches, going from a shorty to the tallest in my class.

I thought of that today when I sat down and my warm-up pants rose up over my ankles. I grew so fast in that week or so, I have ‘stretch marks’ scarred into my skin from how fast I grew that year. Makes me feel like a tree.