By BILL MILLIGAN

For the Call

Dozens of women gathered Friday even-ing at Pauline Martin’s home on Hollow Oak Court in Oakville for their 10th annual Pajama Party.

Conducted every year since 1996 on the Friday before Labor Day, the party has grown from a dozen participants to nearly 100 who, wearing pajamas, visit every watering hole on Telegraph Road in Oak-ville from Garvey’s Grill north to the Blar-ney Stone.

“One year we met this couple who were having so much fun with us they wanted to know where we were going next,” said a woman with Tina written on her name tag.

“We don’t use our real names,” said a chorus of women listening to the interview.

After the laughter died down, “Tina” explained how they opened the man’s shirt and drew a map of their itinerary on his chest.

“She didn’t tell him she drew it in permanent magic marker,” said a woman with Flora written on her name tag.

“Every year crowds start following us from one place to another,” “Tina” said.

After being informed that the newspaper had heard reports of a group of women wearing red hats, smoking cigars and moving from one location to another, a chorus arose from a group who were coming together for a pre-party photograph.

“That was us,” they said in unison.

Martin said the pajama party began as a way for her relatives to meet her friends from work and her friends from the Oak-ville Elks Club.

The first year 12 women wore their pajamas to the bars. The size of the group would more than double as the evening continued, she noted.

“Now people meet someone they think would fit in and invite them,” Martin said. “We have attendance prizes all night and the people working at the bars always organize activities for us.”

Several women were circulating through the crowd making sure everyone knew who were the designated drivers — or DDs as they called them.

“The first year we all had to sleep over here,” “Tina” recalled. “One of my relatives broke her finger, but she didn’t feel it until the next day.”