Story Hour
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Written by Gene B. Williams
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July 27 is “Take Your Pants for a Walk Day.” Danny took that idea and made it even better. He took his pants for a walk. Then he took them for a ride on a sea dragon, then took them for a swim – although he didn’t mean to do that.
Pants, trousers, jeans, slacks, strides, kegs, kex, breeches, pantaloons … there are lots of words that mean the same thing. Whatever you call them, Danny’s Mom was doing some laundry. She hung the clothes on the clothesline. Then she came out with the clothes basket and took the clothes off the clothes pins. She took them into the house and clothesed the door.No, wait a minute. I mean she closed the door.
In any case, she got the shirts (blouses, togs, tees, garments, tops) and the socks (stockings, leggings, foot warmers) off the line (rope, twine, wire) but she forgot one pair of pants.
Nicker doesn’t wear pants – he has no legs – but he knows what they are. Seeing them on the line got him to thinking.
“All alone like that, those pants look … lonely.”
I don’t think pants actually get lonely – do you? But Nicker had the idea in his head and was determined to do something about it.
“Do you take care of your clothes?” he asked Danny.
“Of course I do,” Danny said.
Nicker pointed (as best he could – he doesn’t have fingers) and asked, “What about them?”
“The pants?” Danny asked.
“They look lonely,” Nicker said. “Why don’t we do something nice for them? Let’s make them feel … wanted.”
“The pants?” Danny asked.
“Even pants have feelings, you know,” Nicker insisted. Then his face lit up with a big smile. “Let’s take your pants out to a movie, and then on a picnic, and then ….”
“The pants?” Danny asked.
Nicker paused for a moment and then said, “Well, you can be in them, of course. A movie and a picnic would be a lot more fun if you were.”
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what a sea dragon is thinking. Could Nicker really think the pants were lonely? Or did Nicker just want a movie and a picnic? It didn’t matter. So, Danny got the pants off the line (the line made of twine went in a line from a sign near a vine to the pine) and changed into them. He even did a pants dance in the plants with the ants so that Nicker could see at a glance how happy the pants were.
Did you know that sea dragons are very fast? Well, they are! Arful is the fastest, of course. (You do remember the story about Arful, don’t you?) Fast or slow, riding a sea dragon is a wonderful experience. And when you are riding a sea dragon, you can go on a picnic just about anywhere in the world – and even a few other places.
Okay, okay. Danny was supposed to take his pants for a walk, not take his pants for a ride, but … I didn’t hear his pants complaining. His pants probably liked riding a sea dragon even more than going for a walk. (If I had the choice to go for a walk or ride a sea dragon, I know which I would choose. Maybe we should start a Take Your Pants for a Ride on a Sea Dragon Day!)
Nicker and Danny started at Lake Edie, and soon were at a place called, by some, Lake Gitchigoomie. It was the biggest lake Danny had ever seen, and he said so. “That’s a BIG LAKE!” is what he said.
It was a hot July day, and Nicker was into the water quickly to cool off.
Danny wasn’t so sure. But, he carefully and gently, took his pants for a walk out onto a rock. It seemed like a good idea. He just forgot that when a rock is wet, it can be slippery. In a trice (that’s a fancy and old word that means faster than fast) Danny’s foot went north and Danny went south – right into the lake.
SPLASH!
Then he had something else to say.
“That’s a COLD LAKE!!!” he sputtered. (Believe me, if you have ever fallen into Lake Gitchigoomie, you know just what Danny meant.)
Even his pants noticed. And his shirt. And his socks. All of a sudden that hot July day wasn’t quite so hot. Sea dragons don’t feel the cold, but young boys (and girls) sure do. Worse, Danny didn’t even have a towel to dry himself. He would have to sit there shivering while he waited for the sun to dry and warm him.
As Nicker helped Danny from the lake he said, “Uh, Danny … this was just Take Your Pants for a Walk Day. It wasn’t take your pants for a swim day.”
Do you ever wonder how we get certain words? This issue was about taking your pants for a walk. It also used a lot of words that mean the same thing for the same things, and words that rhyme. Words get even more confusing because the same word can mean all sorts of things. Then there are words that sound the same but mean different things.
“Line” can be something you draw on a piece of paper. Or it can be a telephone call. Or it can be a rope, like for hanging clothes. Or it can be a lie told to someone.
“Pants” can be trousers or many other words. It can also be what your dog does.
“Red” is a color. And you just read this story, and are about to read the rest.
For the kind of pants you wear, the word comes from a character in many plays to entertain people about 500 years ago. This character was Pantaloon. He has also been called Pantalon, Pantalone, and Papa Pantaloon. However you spell it, he’s the same character.
In the plays, he was a greedy old man. The people watching the play knew who he was by the costume. He wore “leggings” rather than the usual “skirt” (which is much easier to sew). Most of the time, he wasn’t a very nice person. Later, Papa Pantaloon was used in the plays as someone for people to laugh at for being so greedy.
Still later, there were clowns. Their job was to make people laugh. They did this with the things they did, and also by the crazy costumes they wore. Soon, the funny baggy pants were called pantaloons.
Just ask him!
Oh, and ask him about the wild strawberry and the upside-down candles stuck to the trees that had sticks for wicks.
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