Bobbie in TV land

by Bobbie (13-0-2 FPE)

In 1926, when I saw the first light of day, it was not the normal custom to dress boys in dresses. My mother dressed me this way be- cause she was both old fashioned and she had wanted a girl so badly. My last brother had preceeded me by. 10 years so that my arrival was an unexpected event. Mom thought that maybe her previous unanswer- ed prayers for a girl would be answered this time. She did the natural thing and held on to her dream until I was five. To the best of my

knowledge none of my brothers share my present hobby.

I can remember how mad I was when, at four years of age, passers- by would remark, as they saw me playing on the front porch, "my, what a beautiful little girl." It so happened that in my block there were no boys my age, so I played mainly with the girls. It wasn't until about five that a boy my age moved next door and my mom and dad decided that my long hair had to be cut. While I liked the boys haircut, I can remember my mom and aunts say I looked better as a girl and now as a man, I agree with them.

My mom's clothes were naturally too big for me as a youngster but I can remember just counting the minutes until she'd go shopping for an hour so I could slip into her underwear. I even secreted some of her cast offs and when she told my aunts, they bought me some panties for my eighth birthday. They thought they'd embarass it out of me but when my mom saw that I liked them too well she got rid of them as she had done with everything else in the past. When I was in high school, my mother took in lady boarders and I can remember sizing them up as to whether their clothes would fit me or not. When I ripped one of their dresses (I had grown larger than I thought), a lock suddenly appeared on their door.

In 1944 when I joined the Navy, I had some time and money of my own and I started to accumulate a modest wardrobe. While my shipmates boozed it up, I was shopping and trying out my new acquis- itions in a cheap hotel. I never had any guilt about this, I didn't tell anyone because I couldn't explain it to myself so why try to justify it to others. I was happy, it didn't hurt anyone else, so why worry about it?

In 1946 when I entered college (on the GI bill), the first oppor-