THINGS REMEMBERED: Era Parents Bought Oversized Clothes For Children

Back in the day, our parents didn’t shop for our size. They shopped for the size we’d become. One size bigger, always.
“Buy it big,” my mother would say. “One day it will be your size.”
So, every special occasion came with the same ritual. Shirts with sleeves that covered our hands. Trousers we had to fold at the ankle, again and again, until we looked like we were wading through water. And shoes oh, those shoes. So big we had to stuff them with cloth, paper, or cotton just to keep them on our feet. Without it, we’d be slapping the ground with every step.
We looked funny. Like oversized babies trying on adult life. My little brother especially. He’d wobble in those shoes and we’d al...