VOTE on 24 May 2010 and make His ... I mean HERstory

The t-shirt I designed and made with fabric crayons

For someone who's not into politics, I sure have been swept into the flow of things. Here I am blogging about it, designing t-shirts and attending political rallies (three so far - my first ever, apart from a UNC one I went to at the last election as part of an anti-smelter crew). I've noted that even small children are getting into it this year - I think largely because of the People's Partnership led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

This morning I woke up with a design and message in mind (see above). I needed to get a yellow, plain, round-neck tee and make it in time to wear to the final People's Partnership rally this afternoon (see here for rationale behind colour if you are not from TT and don't know ).

I went walking through Tunapuna in search of the t-shirt. Many of the mannequins on the sidewalks were wearing yellow, but their tops were frilly and fussy. Not my style, plus not simple enough for application of the intended design.

I went into Francis Fashions and asked for a plain, round-neck t-shirt.

"All de yellow sell out," the shop attendant said matter-of-factly. "It only have de polo neck left."

A few stores down, I saw a child-size yellow t-shirt on a sidewalk mannequin. I went in to the store to ask if they had my size. The shop attendant said: "Yellow sell out, yes. It only have Extra Extra Large and dat go be too big for you."

The other shop attendant said: "She small. Give she de chirren XX size."

A female customer standing next to me said: "Me and she is same size. I go take de chirren XX too. I go take anyting at dis point!"

I got my children's XX size and took it to the cashier, where another woman was excitedly laying out a set of yellow t-shirts on the counter, making sure they were the sizes she wanted.

"I like dis yellow!" she exclaimed to the cashier.

"Yes. Is a nice yellow," the cashier agreed.

As I walked back home, people who passed me also wearing yellow, smiled and nodded (I was wearing one of my yellow Canada t-shirts). It felt as though the colour yellow was a password, a connecting factor, wordlessly uniting those of us who were wearing it.

I guess people wearing red feel the same way.