I wish I had a picture of the pants to share with you, just so you might understand some of my embarrassment and laughter.
Growing up in a single parent household with five brothers and sisters, I can say my mom’s morning routine was…well, okay, it actually wasn’t. There wasn’t anything mundane or normal about trying to get five kids to five different schools all before 7:45 to be at work before 8:00 when the late bell rang for the high school. She didn’t really have a routine except to talk to Jesus first thing.
Yes, she is a high school teacher.
I have little to no understanding about getting kids ready to go to school since I am not married nor do I have kids…..but I have an imagination, and I would suppose that going through all of that can really put some pressure on you to the point that you do something to help with the insanity.
You do something crazy.
You one day go out and purchase some duck pants.
Yup.
Magenta colored pants with small light pink ducks on them.
Those were the pair of pants that my mother decided to wear to school. My mom never has claimed to have a sense of fashion and has often gone to her daughters for advice but this was on another level. I remember when she first put them on and danced around the house while my siblings and I jokingly begged her to not wear them to school or at least not while she dropped us off at our schools.
(Granted, you couldn’t see her legs while she dropped us off, but as a kid you know what your mom is wearing and it feels like everyone else does, too.)
My mom decided that Fridays would be the best time to don these duck pants.
Thus the birth of “Duck Fridays.”
You know Duck Friday was legit because we even came up with a song…kinda.
(To the tune “Grease Lightning” specifically, ‘grease lightning, go grease lightning’ but it went, “Duck Friday, D-Duck Friday”)
I don’t know what became of those pants, probably ended up in a garage sale, or in good will. I had forgotten about Duck Fridays until walking through a market in Cambodia. My team and I, since finding out that we would be teaching English, decided that we needed more skirts because that is the proper attire for teachers in Cambodia. We were rummaging through heaps of discarded articles of clothing finding fifty cent skirts to wear. I had gotten caught up in a conversation with a Khmer (word for Cambodian pronounced Kuh-My) girl who spoke English and had not stopped to look for skirts to wear. My team was in the process of paying, and I knew I needed to grab something. I picked up a skirt one of my team members had shown me when another one caught my eye.
The light teal color grabbed my attention first but the print on the skirt sealed the deal.
Ducks.
All over the skirt. Beautifully created creatures of the air.
I thought the skirt was so funny that I decided to get it. It wasn’t until later when the Lord brought to memory my mom and her duck pants. I then decided to save the skirt for Friday. Duck Friday was reborn.
I have missed my mom more than I thought I would and having the Lord remind me of her in the small things was like honey for my heart. I love the thick quilted birded skirt that brings me close to my mom. I am now a proud participator of Duck Friday.
