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Think of an item of clothing from your childhood, and write a story inspired by that.

Posted in Nonfiction on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 28 stories

The Overalls

Winner of Contest #145 🏆

[Allusions to death/dying] Snip, snip, snip. I’m becoming something new. I was a bolt of fabric, long and wonderful and wrapped many times around myself, hugging my own form. I had once been thread, a multitude of threads, and maybe even something else before that, but who can be expected to remember that far? Those threads were stretched tight and woven one over the other, again and again. Woven so tightly I became a taut impenetrable thing, not a hole to be seen. But now, I’m learning I am not as indestructible as I had thought. For one sn...

194 likes 143 comments 143
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A Crown for The King

Submitted to Contest #145

She gave me the crown to remind me that I was a King. My grandmother summoned me to her room on the second floor of our old house on Georgia Avenue during one of my parent’s tornados, and there it sat on her vanity. The crown was made of golden felt with fabric jewels sewn into it. While the cacophony raged downstairs over an unkind word at a corporate barbecue, my grandmother lowered it onto my head. At first, I thought she was playing some kind of game with me, but then she put her hands on my shoulders and looked at me with all the se...

33 likes 20 comments 20
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The Cats of Mount Washington

Shortlisted for Contest #145 ⭐️

My mother had a valid point that I wasn’t doing anything else, but that still didn’t mean I wanted to start packing or preparing my room to be turned over to one of my younger twin sisters the moment I left for the train station. After working day shifts at a summer camp in a nearby town (residency in the upscale suburb was required for attendance but apparently not cheap teenage labor) and night shifts at a steakhouse, and the usual unpaid labor at my father’s store, I had given myself two weeks off before leaving for college and was l...

25 likes 2 comments 2
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The Handkerchief Shirt

Submitted to Contest #145

The Handkerchief Shirt A Short Story by Susan Sidell susan@susansidell.com May 11, 2022 The sticky humidity had burned off in the oven of the city sidewalks when Jazmyn strapped on her second-hand roller skates. The party guests were gone and Jaz breathed in the friendly loneliness. Now that she was ten years old, Jaz would no longer have the court-required babysitter. She was on her own during the long summer days until school started. She poked at the frayed spot in the lace and squinted at it. Should she knot the edges of the stri...

24 likes 15 comments 15
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Blue Suede

Submitted to Contest #145

I was invisible and I liked it that way. Our high school loomed and brooded - old like a three-story mountain on a hill. A kid like me could stay pretty small and unnoticed here and that was my plan. I was a freshman and freshmen learned how to 'fade.' I didn't linger in those high school hallways. Most freshmen would agree that’s not a good idea. All kinds of drama and intrigues could happen in a high school hallway and also in the boys' room so most of us freshmen moved fast.My brother David was a senior and I would look for him in the hal...

17 likes 15 comments 15
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Sins of the Father (and Mother)

Submitted to Contest #145

Sins of the Father (and Mother)It is a well established fact of life that parents will occasionally, usually unintentionally, embarrass their children. This is often accomplished, in most cases by the dad, simply by choice of attire. Kids do not want to be seen in close proximity to a parent who likely secured their latest colorful outfit at the clearance sale rack at the “Nerd Department” of Kohl’s.Such momentary discomforts suffered by a child are to be expected and over time can be forgiven. My tale of woe is not the result of unintention...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Super Guy

Submitted to Contest #145

           It was 1975, and my six-year-old self had just finished watching a rerun of the original Superman series, starring George Reeves in the starring role.            I recall how I was fascinated at this man that could run faster than a locomotive and fly to the rescue of people that were in danger. I watched in amazement as bullets bounced off him like they were made of rubber. I decided at that moment that I wanted to be jus...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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The Diary of an Invisible Man,

Submitted to Contest #145

*TW Profanity*I had never imagined my life like this. Looking around in an overstuffed storage locker at the odd collection of things that had represented my journey. No, pictures, no accolades, nothing to suggest that I had even existed. At 32 years old, every artifact in my life was a lifeless piece of junk. Just another meaningless entry into the diary of an invisible man.This was never my intention. There once was a time where many around me would have imagined that I would excel socially, and wind up successful. I was certainly smart en...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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The Red Bell Bottom Jeans

Submitted to Contest #145

TRIGGER WARNING: Some references to Sexual Abuse, Suicide, Physical Abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health.A few years ago, I was going through old pictures from an antique trunk in my mother’s attic. She was a collector of all things, although she would never admit to being a hoarder. She had collected so many items, she was considering renting extra space. So, we convinced her it was time to purge. As my sisters and I separated the pictures among us, I paused on one photograph of me standing in the dessert outside my grand...

13 likes 7 comments 7
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Free at Last

Submitted to Contest #145

"Let's go to the dining room. I think dinner is about to be served." We walked together to another building, just across the lawn.  "I'm sorry there are only little kids here this evening. The older kids will be back later; they're at the Oakland A's game right now.  You'll meet them all when they return."  The lady welcoming me to the shelter was nice. The officer who took me away from my mom made me ride in the back seat of the police car, just adding insult to injury. The last thing I needed was to feel like a crimina...

11 likes 10 comments 10
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When she...

Submitted to Contest #145

When she was five, she peeled away the tissue paper, and could feel the power of the package.  The dress was a sleeveless powder blue with wisps of white in the fabric and the most intricate butterfly buttons.   “If you are ever frightened, you can close your eyes and the butterflies will fly you away.  When you feel safe again, they will bring you home” grandma whispered in her ear.  “I think you should wear it to your first day of kindergarten.” The girl smiled and nodded her agreement.  The dread of the app...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Angel In Disguise

Submitted to Contest #145

           One of the most daunting tasks I faced when my mother died in 2020 was emptying the family home of more than 50 years of memories.            While tossing aside, books, tools, and broken exercise equipment like a deadly scythe, I came across the remnants of my Tin Man outfit from the early seventies. I was immediately transported back to when I was eighteen, had a full head of hair, weighed eighty pounds less., and dated ...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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The Sly Fox

Submitted to Contest #145

I wonder if things had been different if I had said no almost thirty-five years ago. Growing up, my mom had a closet full of clothes. The usual–dresses, blouses, dress trousers– but this story isn’t about that. We were not interested in those. What we were interested in were the things she’d exiled to a far, forgotten corner at the bottom of her closet. We would wait for her to go to brunch or something, leaving David in charge so that we could raid it. There were so many beautiful things we never saw her in. We took turns using the Hippie...

10 likes 5 comments 5
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My Jama Dress

Submitted to Contest #145

"Mom! Did you know I'm a princess?" I'm so excited to tell her!"Of course, Melody, you're my princess."Gasp, she knows! This means, does this mean... "You're a Queen!" Oh, I'm so excited, both of us in one day! "Princess and Queen! Princess and Queen!""Alright, Princess, let's put on pajamas and go to bed.""Mom, what jamas are you wearing tonight?""Come. I'll show you." I love when she smiles like that. It makes my insides feel warm. Warm and snugly right before bed! "I'm thinking this one."S...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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"My coat of many colors".

Submitted to Contest #145

CW: Mention of death.To nobody specifically:Ok! ok! ok!Enough of this...She calls it all fashionAnd I call it a clowns costume.I think I will need some audiences to judge this case.Question: What's that one thing you had rather prefer to choose all by yourself as a little kid ( say yours )?Answer: For me.. it was my clothings.I believe a majority will agree with me on this.In my attic...I find this piece of colored coat in a box. Mom had insisted i wear this coat to her friend's party in the city.I remember vividly.Had I gotten the guts at t...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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