Color Transfer

When I called Sam (age 3 ½) and Briana (age 1 ½) over to get their coats and shoes on to bring Sam to nursery school,  I noticed that Briana had used her own face as a canvas. From forehead to chin she was completely colored in yellow Crayola marker. The toddler looked like a bad racist Asian cartoon.

Before putting on my new highlighter yellow Gap sweater on the other day, I pulled off and then completely ignored the tags hanging from it. My only concern was if the sweater would look well with my new skinny jeans—which it did.

But when I arrived back home and changed into comfy clothing I noticed something peculiar in my reflection: my armpits were yellow.

I knew it was not jaundice or yellow fever.

So I dug through the trash to find and read the tags I had thrown away. They said “This is a specially dyed garment. Color transfer may occur. Do not wear with light colored clothing until first washing.”

They should have added: Do not wear with light colored skin either.

And when I saw Briana’s yellow-colored complexion with only minutes to spare I grabbed some baby wipes and did multiple full face sweeps. She was still a bit yellow but worthy of being seen in public.

And I took some baby wipes (I still use them) and scrubbed my armpits. They were still a bit yellow but they were clean enough for a navy t-shirt.

And life went on—no worse for the wear-- albeit with some colorful stories to tell.