FICTION

Show Girl

by GLORIA 38-A-1

It was thirty years ago this spring when my life was changed completely! Out of the clear blue sky it seemed--1, a boy of sixteen became in all facets that meet the eye, a GIRL!

It was in the midst of the great de- pression, in the early summer of "33 that I went to spend the summer with my Mother's sister and Uncle Jim and plunged into the exciting life of a Carnival, traveling through the neighboring states for one week stands, setting up, trucking by nights to a new location, breaking up and moving each weekend. Uncle Jim ran the ferris wheel and whip and the "follies", a girlie show. Aunt Effie sold tickets and kept the accounts, and my cousin Connie managed the Follies and danced with the "line" of girls while Uncle Jim did the "spieling" to draw the crowd. I helped out as best I could, cleaning the tent in the mornings, helpin with the girl's wardrobe (a task I loved), and making myself useful as best I could to earn my "keep" for the summer.

I was the only boy in our family of

14