Minnesota Family Wears Same Red Dress In Three Generations Of School Pictures [VIDEO]
I like interesting stories about things like this - especially when they involve generational traditions. A Minnesota family has made their own tradition revolving around school picture day and a red dress for more than 57 years.
It started in the 1960's and just received its latest update in 2023. And, the tradition almost ended this year as well.
Jan Parker first bought the red plaid dress for her daughter Diana to wear for school picture day in 1965. The next year, Diana's sister Lana wore that very same red plaid dress for her school pictures. Four more of Jan's daughters wore the dress for their pictures - to match the earlier school photos and to develop the tradition.
At its earliest stages, the family probably didn't think too much about the tradition - or that it would last this long:
"Each time the dress came out of the cedar chest....[Jan] was certain it was going to be the last, 'because a boy was supposed to come along'."
Naturally, when each of the original sisters had children of their own, Jan's grandchildren continued that school picture day dress into the second generation.
The most-recent photo, though almost proved to be the stopping point for the family tradition. When it was time for seventh grader Aubrey - Jan's granddaughter - to wear the dress, she wasn't so sure. Aubrey instead wanted to wear "the goalie gear she wears as a skater for the Elk River U12A girls hockey team". A set of promised monster truck truck tickets prevailed, and Aubrey became the 17th daughter in the family to wear that same red plaid dress for her school picture. There was one concession, though - Aubrey insisted on wearing pants under the dress and a baseball hat.
The family was recently featured on an updated human-interest story on KARE-TV. You can watch the video to get more of their story:
Over the years, there have been some mishaps with the dress. Once it was ripped out on the playground on picture day; a quick mend with fabric tape fixed the problem.
So will the tradition end with the third generation - with the 17th member of the family to wear the dress? Probably not. There is hope for the family legacy in that "one of Aubrey's cousins...already has a baby girl and plans to carry the tradition on to the next generation".