Transvestia

I still love to dance) but I became vaguely uneasy about it and said I had to go home.

During grade school my marks were above average, and I "skipped" two half grades,. which made me less well developed physically than my classmates. Never- theless, although I was of slender build, I was not con- sidered frail, tiny or scrawny. My father's build was much the same and today I'm an inch taller than he was.

In high school I was too light and slender for most sports but did go out for track and swimming and did fairly well in the latter. In Junior College, I became Captain of the swimming team.

It was in Junior College that I put on my first dress. The class was divided into groups and each was to deve- lope a skit for "stunt night". I don't remember where the idea came from (possibly, it was mine. I don't know) but our group came up with the idea of a shadow- panel skit (in which a bright light behind the players throws their silhouettes on a white sheet between them and the audience) and I was to be the "heroine". I told my mother about it and asked her for suggestions. She was considerably larger around than I, and suggested I ask the girl I'd been dating to lend me one of her dresses. I practically turned purple at the thought, but there was no alternative and I did it.

The dress was velvet

·

·

black velvet and I'll never forget it. The velvet was soft in my hands and the night of the performance, I slipped off my shirt and trousers and struggled into the dress. It was a little more than "snug", and I stuffed some old stockings into the bosom and put on a halloween wig from the dime store.

·

That did it in more ways than one. The hero of our little skit took one look at me and whistled. Then he came over, put his arms around my waist and was a- bout to kiss me when the faculty advisor - a man - ap- peared. Scratch one skit - it never went on. But it did not scratch the memory of that dress, or the soft feel of velvet.

College was not easy for me, except for a few subjects.

6