Shorts
The irony is not lost on Mary Ann.
Ginger Grant is the beautiful one. The sultry, sensuous one who has gone on more dates than she can count and who routinely had to step over the men throwing themselves at her feet.
Mary Ann Summers is the sweet one. The innocent, naïve one who's had one boyfriend in her lifetime and can only get Gilligan to notice her if she has a coconut crème pie in one hand and a stack of comic books in the other.
But one day she realizes with a flash of enlightenment, and a touch of shame, that Ginger wears three times as much clothing as she does.
Mary Ann doesn't do it on purpose. Her outfits are comfortable. At home they allowed her to do her chores and ride horses and run through the fields. On the island they allow her to do her chores and swing on vines and run through the jungle exploring with Gilligan.
Plus, it's hot in Kansas. Toiling in the fields is not pleasant work and extra fabric clinging to sweaty skin is just one more annoyance to slow down the pace. All the girls walked around in short shorts in the summer and no one gave it a second thought.
Except that creep Horace Higgenbotham, who walked straight into a wall one sweltering day in August when Mary Ann and her three best friends were standing around outside the ice cream stand. The four of them were just too much for him and they were shocked, standing there open-mouthed with their ice cream cones and their hair ribbons and their youthful reliance on all the local boys to be respectful and gallant and chivalrous just like their older brothers and cousins.
It's hot on the island, too. Toiling in her vegetable garden is much more pleasant than the fields at home, but it's still for practical purposes that she dons her cute little crop tops and shorts that are cut at an angle that she hopes makes her look taller and no one gives it a second thought.
She's older and wiser now. The Horace incident pops up in her consciousness every so often while she's getting dressed and she's occasionally wondered how it would have been different if he wasn't being a total creep and if she actually liked him.
Mary Ann is doing the dishes one day when out of the corner of her eye she spies Gilligan wander past on the edge of the clearing. It's humid and the temperature has to be at least 95 degrees and she wonders how he wears that long-sleeved shirt on days like this. Mary Ann leans further over the edge of the deep sink and reaches blindly into the suds for a missing spoon. She covertly peers at Gilligan through her bangs and is secretly thrilled to notice him watching her.
Mary Ann winces as Gilligan walks straight into a tree. He staggers back a few steps, holds his hat to his head. He glances at Mary Ann to make sure she didn't see, but she's already hiding her smile in the thick soapy water.