thought I'd like to be excused from time to time to do something with the fellows or to date, but here I wanted to walk out there three miles in the dark to get a girdle. Didn't I ever think ab- out going out on dates with girls? Several of the boys in my class were dating.

go.

She had me undress and I thought she wasn't going to let me But it was just to put on bloomers and stockings so that I could put the girdle on and wear it back rather than try to carry it back in my hand.

When I got back, I guess she was sorry that she'd been so cross with me and asked if I thought of her as my best girl and that was why I wasn't interested in the other girls in the neigh- borhood. When I took off my shirt and pants, she burst out laugh- ing because she said that I should have put the girdle on under the bloomers instead of over the top. That was, of course, the idea I'd gotten from the catalogues. She said that I really did- n't really know anything at all about girls after all. I don't think that she planned anything to happen but she was so carried away with her humor and my shyness that she undressed completely.

I had never been kissed by a girl before and, still teasing, she took my head in her hands and kissed me. It would have been easier through the years if I could have blamed my personality differences on this improper indoctrination, but I'm afraid my aunt found a very willing pupil.

I was troubled though. I expected that she would talk to me about it, tease me, scold, punish, or even express approval. In- stead, there was just a request for her nightgown and I was excus- ed.

Her attitude toward me was different, however. I don't mean that she allowed me to indulge myself more or showed more inter- est herself in my interests. It was rather an attitude of over- protectiveness. She had always complained of having to spend the nights alone with my uncle working nights so much of the time. So arrangements were made for me to sleep at her house.

My aunt didn't discourage my joining in things other young people were doing, but if it were church or a class party or even boy scouts, she would be on hand to walk home with me.

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