My Favorite Gown

Tonight at a basketball game I ran into my friend Kemi, who for the record, I don’t get to see enough. She said, “You looked nice the other night in your gown.” This coming from one of the most beautiful people on earth was a nice compliment, but I must have made such a face when she said it. See, most nights I am in my nightgown as early as I can be and I was fairly certain that Kemi had not seen me in my flannel.
I really had to rack my brain what she was talking about and then I realized I had seen her at the Deb ball where I was required to wear a gown while directing photographs, and not the night kind. If it were up to me I would spend most of my life in my night gown. I guess it could be up to me and I could become some kind of recluse, but I am afraid my extrovert needs would fight that from happening.
Girls boarding school was the perfect answer for a girl who likes to wear her night gown and be with friends at the same time. When I was at Ethel Walkers Lanz flannel nightgowns were the sleep wear of choice. I remember one night when we had a fire drill or perhaps an actual fire, which ever, all the inhabitants of Bever Brook dorm (yes, that is a very poor choice of names for a girl’s dormitory, that also happened to be on the corner of Bushy Hill and Climax roads- I promise I could not make this stuff up.) anyway, someone took a picture of us standing outside the dorm in our sleepwear. It could have been an ad for Lanz since every girl was swathed in flannel for as far as the eye could see.
Somehow I have never grown out of my love for a toasty warm flannel Lanz night gown. Although living in North Carolina means there are very few nights when it is actually cold enough to need it. I have never been able to make the change to PJ’s, which are much more popular now. My PJ wearing friends say they can’t wear night gowns because they get tangled up inside them. That is how I feel about wearing pants to bed. I guess I just don’t toss and turn that much in my sleep because my night gown is rarely twisted around me when I wake up.  
Now that I have to wear reading glasses all the time I feel like I look like the grandmother in little red riding hood in my nightgown. I guess if I wore a white cotton cap to bed that would really seal the deal. Poor Russ, Lanz flannel is just nobody’s fantasy. For now I think he should be glad I am not wearing the little white bonnet. Who knew my sleep wear could get worse.