The Importance of Underwear

When I was a little girl, my mother always stressed the importance of wearing clean underwear. "If you are ever in an accident, and they take you to the hospital, you don't want the doctor to say..'eww'..dirty underwear!" This was so deeply ingrained in my four year old brain, sometimes I changed my underwear 6 times a day..to make certain that it was clean! It took many years of my mom yelling at me to 'keep on the pair you have on!' to undo what she had taught me earlier. The real importance of underwear is that you are wearing them..not necessarily how clean they are. When we moved to East Meadow, my 7 year old daughter wanted to have a sleepover with a few of her classmates. Having agreed, that it would be fun, the seven little angels changed into their pj's and got into their sleeping bags. As I was walking around the wall-to-wall sleeping bags, I spotted an unfamiliar item on the floor. "What's this?" I thought as I picked up the Hello Kitty printed underpants. "Did some little visitor bring a change for tomorrow morning? Certainly, no one had removed their underwear..now, had they?!" I asked who it belonged to and my question was answered. Now, I could have made no mention of this to my daughter, but you know what, moms do and say stupid things sometimes to their kids. No, I did not tell her about being in an accident and the doctors..but I did tell her that "Greek girls always wear underwear to sleep..to school..to the playground..to Church and as long as you are alive..underwear is a must-have..darn it...it's part of your wardrobe!!" The only time Greek girls do not wear underwear is when they are bathing/showering or in the pool. I made myself quite clear that following day. Heck, this little girl who took off her underpants, 30 years ago at MY house, may now be a pole dancer for all we know! We are all products of our up-bringing. I may have messed up a little..and my mom may have, too. But if we ARE ever in an accident, we will be in the ER with clean underwear. Peace.