Twelfth family member wears shirt for first day of school

It’s a simple white linen weave cotton shirt adorned with blue and red diamonds; at a glance, most would say it is nothing special. For the McCabe family, however, it represents four and a half decades of memories.

Since 1958 the shirt has been worn only 12 times and each time by a different member of the McCabe family on their first day of first grade.

Lois McCabe first purchased the shirt for her eldest son Charles P. McCabe III (Chuck) for his first day of school. “I’ll never forget his first day of school,” Lois McCabe said. “He looked so cute in the shirt.”

While McCabe said she didn’t originally plan for the shirt to become a tradition, she thought that it would be a neat idea to put the shirt away for her other boys to wear on their first days of school.

After Chuck wore the shirt, his four younger brothers each wore the shirt in turn on their first days of first grade. Bert, who is four years younger than Chuck, was second in line, followed by Stan and Jim. Marshall McCabe became the fifth and final of Lois and Charles McCabe’s sons to wear the shirt when he attended his first day at J. E. Robins Elementary School in 1970.

The tradition of the shirt became known throughout the J. E. Robins Elementary School, and by the time Marshall wore the shirt, it was such a well known anecdote that the local Charleston, West Virginia newspaper shared it with the community.

Marshall McCabe, now a resident of Fayetteville, Ga., credits the article for cementing the tradition into the family’s future. “I guess when the article was written in the paper we realized how unique and significant the shirt really was,” McCabe recalled. “It was an honor to wear it.”

Since that time, seven more McCabes, Lois and Charles McCabe’s grandchildren, have worn the shirt on their first days of school.

As the tradition goes, after each child has worn the shirt it is put into a bag and placed back into a closet until the next first grader comes along.

Thirty six years after Marshall McCabe’s first day of school, his only time to wear the sentimental shirt, his eldest child Cali Payton McCabe continued the tradition that her father, uncles and cousins have all participated in; she attended her first day of first grade clothed in the cotton button-down. “My brother made a big deal of passing the shirt down to me when it was Cali’s turn to wear it,” recalled Marshall.

Although Landmark Christian School in Peachtree City requires students to wear uniforms to school, they made an exception for Cali and her special shirt. “We brought in the article and shared the story with Cali’s teachers and they thought it was the neatest thing,” said Marshall. The school graciously allowed the McCabes to continue the family tradition, and Cali became the third girl to wear the shirt which Marshall describes as having held up well.

“Jim’s daughter wasn’t crazy about it, but she wore it to school and after class changed into another shirt,” commented Marshall.

Although Cali wasn’t initially very enthusiastic about wearing a “boys shirt,” her opinion changed when Marshall showed her the article from 1970. After seeing that her dad had also worn the shirt, it made it special for her.

Marshall McCabe’s son Killian is next in line to wear the significant shirt. The three year old is currently at St. Andrew’s Preschool in Peachtree City. “By the time my son wears the shirt we think there will be another McCabe in line to wear it,” said Marshall. His eldest nephew was recently married and will likely be the first to pass the shirt on to a third generation of McCabes.

The shirt’s significance lies deeper than all of this however. For the McCabe family it represents the importance of a good education. Charles McCabe was an attorney who knew the importance of education. “One thing my dad always stressed was to get a college education. It didn’t matter what career path we chose, but he did want us to graduate from college,” said Marshall McCabe. All of the McCabe boys completed college and have gone on to have successful careers. The brothers’ careers are varied and include an Episcopal priest, an oil and gas land man, a mining engineer, a doctor and a Chick-fil-A business owner. “All of my nephews and nieces have done real well. We’ve all done real well,” Marshall McCabe stated. Every person who has worn the shirt and is of age has graduated with a college degree; something Charles McCabe would be proud to know.

How long will the tradition of the shirt continue for the McCabe family? Marshall McCabe is quick to state, “There are so many children and grandchildren now. I think it will go indefinitely.” Perhaps in forty more years, we’ll see the fifth and sixth generations of McCabes head off to school in the famous shirt.

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