OVERALLS

"When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden..." -Minnie Aumonier

In the spring, my mother would don her old gumboots, put on her pin stiped engineer overalls, tie a scarf around her head and grab a shovel. 

She would dig in the  dirt till  raccoons came out at dusk.

She would plant nasturtiums, sweet peas , in a boggy part of the grass, beside the porch. She'd dump in one bag of potting soil, and manure,  smooth it over, and consider it was good smoooshing her hands over the overalls, leaving traces of dirt and manure.

There were two long flower boxes  attached to the old porch. My dad made them. Out of rough wood. Every other spring  my mother would repaint them white. She'd wipe paint on those overalls, to go with the dirt and manure.

We'd make a trip to pick up flowers. She'd wear her pin striped engineers overalls, gumboots and scarf on her head. In public.  I would be mortified. 

She'd plant red geraniums with lobelia in those white planters. Sometimes late at night, when the raccoons would sashay by. Later, she'd sit at the kitchen table in her overalls, dirty and stained and eat vanilla  ice cream.

In the summer, she would paint inside the house. She'd wear the overalls and a sun hat to keep the paint blobs off. By the end of August the house would be sweet and fresh.  Couldn't say the same for the overalls.

In the fall, she would grab a saw. Still wearing her engineer overalls, gumboots, and scarf.  Every year, she would cut branches off trees. Right in the front yard, by the road. Where everyone could see . One year, The straps of her overalls got caught up on one of the branches.  The neighbours rescued her. As way of thanks she gave them the  spoils of her conquest. 

Most years,  she would rake and burn  leaves. I would smell the smoke from burning leaves, far into the night. Could see  embers way up on the incline. 

Sometimes she  came into the house her overalls singed, her hair a little singed as well. But she didn't mind. She'd grab some tea then head back out at 3am to get the hose. I'd hear the water running till  dawn as she attempted to put out the fire.

One year the fire dept stopped by. The neighbours were getting nervous, I guess. She was still wearing her singed pin striped overalls , headscarf and gumboots when they arrived. I hid in the house. She got a ticket for  the size of the fire. Which was still burning. They kindly put it out. Lectured her a bit. But every year she did the same thing again......

In the winter, she took a snow shovel, and her grungy  overalls , head scarf and snow boots , to scrape at the front steps.She had this old fur stole , it hung in the hall closet. The fur  was from a bygone era; she threw that over the overalls, for good measure.  Carollers would come by. I hid in the house.

They serenaded us . My mother, who could not sing a note, happily sang along.  I was really happy I was in the house.

I found those overalls, like I found most things from the house, that year of change, in the basement. I don't think they had ever been cleaned. They smelled of smoke, and fire, and dirt, and manure, paint chips,  ripped and torn and the straps sewed and resewed.  With her stitches. With her needle. She was unique.  I wish I had them now. So the next time I climbed a tree I would  have something to wear...............

"I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favour of the kings of the world..." -Thomas A. Edison

 Photographs 2021