Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants: Texas Relatives Continuing Graduation Tradition Since 1950
The family has celebrated seven decades of graduations in style.
— -- A Texas family has celebrated seven decades of graduations in style, by wearing the same pair of pants.
The tradition began in 1950, when James Smith was graduating from Lewis High School.
"Our father wanted him [James] to have a good pair of pants to graduate in," Smith’s younger brother, Dan, told ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas. "But he didn't have the financial wherewithal to go buy any for him."
So the boys’ father, Claude Smith, let James wear his wool, navy blue pinstripe slacks to James' 1950 graduation. The pants were worn by another brother a few years later and then by Dan Smith for his own graduation in 1957.
“The tradition was beginning to grab a hold of me,” Dan told WFAA.
Dan’s son, Mark, wore the pants at his graduation, as did Mark’s sons, Dillon and Colby.
Given all the use, the pants have been altered many times.
“We have to take them up for some people, let them out for other people,” Dan’s son Mark Smith told WFAA.
The pants were worn again this year when Dan’s grandson, Lee Smith, graduated from Allen High School in Allen, Texas.
Lee Smith was the 15th relative to wear the pants at his graduation.
"What excited me was that Lee was excited about it," Dan told WFAA.
The family’s next graduation will come in 2023, so for now the pants will go back into storage, awaiting another special day, according to WFAA.
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