Reminiscence

by Sharon

I was born in 1902, and at this writing I am 60 years old. I have been a TV all my life. Only a few people know the way it came about.

I was the youngest in a family of eleven boys. As I look at old photographs and compare them with stories and articles by others like myself it seems as though mother must have wanted girl. At any rate in all photos that include me I am the only one with long hair, and some show me in dresses and in one or two I have a ribbon in my hair.

As you know this was still the era of the black lace corset (still is for me) I had seen mother and my' aunts lacing each other and would feel funny all over when I saw their corsets.

When I was about ten I found a discarded corset in the attic and put it on. As I was small it did not fit too snugly but was still tight enough for me to know that I wanted to wear a corset for all time.

I would put on this old corset every chance I got for the next two years. Then one day mother caught me and after a lot of questions I told her I loved to wear them and would do so every chance I got. She smiled and told me she did not mind my hobby and she would help me lace up.

Shortly after that she called me to her room and gave me my first corset. As she laced me in the grandest feeling came over me and I kept saying,, "tighter". Mother tied the laces and told me that my waist looked like an hour glass it was so small. She then showed me a fashion catalogue and I said I want- ed my waist to be like those.

She measured my waist and it was sixteen inches.

50.