six dollar pants
June 30, 2011 § Leave a comment
The City Museum in St. Louis is place that transforms possibility into reality. From the moment I saw the winding tunnels, I wanted to be little again with a license to wander. Stepping into a tunnel, I walked into a wall. I was wearing a skirt. Backing carefully out of the tunnel I left my husband with both children to find a pair of pants. After all, I was standing in a place of possibility.
My search began in the obvious place, the store planted directly behind the admission counter at the front of the building. No pants. A deep breath and determination created hope. I asked where I could find pants the way one asks what day it is and was directed to the vintage resale shop on the 4th floor. Like a treasure map, I followed the path to the store my mind swirling with adventure.
Scavenging racks of clothes, I found my vanity in a row of denim cut offs. With waists that reached to my rib cage and lengths that alternated between inappropriate and silly I grabbed an assortment of sizes, dodging the purple and pink technicolor terrors and setting my vanity aside in the dressing room. For six dollars I traded my self-consciousness over body image for adventure and indulged the child within.