Week 36, Off to School: Uncle Steve's Pants

For Week 36 of 2025's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, I'm sharing one of my favorite family stories. It's one my Nana often told me.

As a young, stay-at-home mom in the 1950’s, Nana Connie’s days were packed full of chores.  With five children born in the span of seven years, money was tight, but she knew how to stretch a dollar.  As one of eleven children herself, she grew up in a home where creativity and resourcefulness were necessary. Whatever Nana touched turned to gold, like Rumpelstiltskin gave her a gift (except her daughters’ hair – those poor, poor girls and the god-awful haircuts she inflicted on them!). She was an incredible cook, able to take whatever she had at home or could find at a good price and make it into a delicious meal.  Though her kids wanted store-bought bread like their friends had, Nana saved money by baking bread weekly.  My mom still remembers the warm aroma of fresh-baked bread filling the house.  She had an artist’s eye and could turn a piece of trash into an interesting decoration for her home.  Nana was also a decent seamstress.  The family couldn’t afford lots of nice, new clothing for their children so she used that artist’s eye of hers to find nice, adult-sized thrift store clothing, washed them, took them apart, and made beautiful outfits for her children. 

By 1958, her five children were between the ages of 1 and 8, and September of that year meant she’d finally have more babies at school than at home.  Her middle child, Steve, was finally old enough to join Ronnie and Linda, at St. Hyacinth's School  The children attended the St. Hyacinth’s School.  Most of the French-Catholics in Westbrook lived within walking-distance from the school and went home for lunch.

Uncle Ron, Uncle Steve, and my mom Linda ready for their first day of school in 1958

Nana made her three eldest children special new outfits for their first day of school.  She fussed especially over Steve’s since it was his first day ever, and she wanted him to look neat and handsome for the nuns.  She bought a men’s wool suit and carefully took it apart to make a sturdy pair of pants with room to grow, and a little vest.  She was so proud of the perfect, little outfit she spent so much time and effort sewing.  Steve looked adorable and was excited to start school with his big brother and sister.  He flashed a great, big grin when my grandfather asked him to smile for the camera.  After hugs, kisses, wishes of good luck, and warnings to be good, the siblings made their way down the steep hill they lived on and headed off to St. Hyacinth’s.

Uncle Steve on his first day of school in the outfit Nana made

The few short hours between morning and lunchtime flew by for my busy grandmother.  She still had two little ones at home and a house to clean.  Before she knew it, it was time to prepare lunch.  Ronnie and Linda came home looking neat and clean, probably jabbering about their first day of school.  It took a bit longer for Steve to arrive.  When he walked through the door, pants torn and his knees scraped and red, Nana rushed to him, worried.  “Steve, what happened?  Are you hurt?”  After she made sure he was okay – he wasn’t crying – she took another good look at him and asked, “What happened to your new pants?”  Grinning, he told her that his friend bet him a stick of gum that he couldn’t walk all the way up the hill on his knees.  “But I did it!” he exclaimed, proudly snapping his gum.

Poor Nana!  All that work she put into making his first day of school outfit, and Steve had to change into different pants before returning to school.  I’m sure she didn’t think it was funny at the moment, but she always laughed telling the story in later years.