Split Bottoms

Many moons ago, c. 1995, I owned a pair of Victoria's Secret cotton pajama bottoms. They were the standard, with a drawstring waist, super thin comfy material and a simple, flowered print. I loved these pants and I truly believed they loved me back. Then the crotch split. The seam, holding on for dear life each day, finally gave out under the pressure. I was devastated. I called my mother from college, "Mom, can you sew these back together??" MBH is a whiz at such tasks. Indeed, she mended the four corners of thin material that met between my legs. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, my favorite pj pants lived to see another day in the dorms.

But like all good things, even my mother's handiwork, had to come to an end. The bottom gave way after a deep squat to pick something up and the pants were finito! Sadly, I saved them, folded with love and tucked gently in the back of my dresser drawer. Months later, after deciding that I could not, in fact, make throw pillows out of the remaining fabric, the comfies found their way to the trash. *sniff, sniff*

The purpose for this story is that this morning, my current comfies met a similar fate, and the raw emotion of loss and grief surfaced yet again. My fav pj bottoms, also from VS, and a gift from my boyfriend on my twenty-first birthday, split up the ass less than an hour ago. I lowered myself onto the couch with my second mug of coffee and heard the terrible ripping of fabric so thin, it might as well have been made of tissue. (So really, the ripping was more of a muted tearing noise, like a wet paper towel.) Anyway, another pair of loved pj bottoms have met their match. I will not be shipping them home to Michigan for needlework. Instead, I will have a brief moment of silence to honor the many great times I had with my comfies, and let them go with dignity. And, for the amusement of my mother, I have included images of the shredded ass. Goodbye old friends. God speed.