Transvestia

widely believed and that are still believed, they should have had poor health and died young. Yet today there are more girls of my age alive than boys. So small waists did them no harm. Much more harm was done by the excessive weight of their clothes, and with older women, by the trailing skirts they had to work in. Longing for a better figure I wish that cor- seted boys had been common, as they certainly were in England then and even later, and that mother had put me into them the same as the girls.

When sixteen, I had an unexpected chance to try out corsets. Even then I had a reputation as a clever mechanic. There were no cash registers. Small stores had a till under the counter. Larger ones had small carriages that ran on a wire from the counters back to the cashier in the office. They were propelled by pul- ling a spring. Next to our house was the largest store, three stories, the third being used for storage only. The owner wanted some sort of cash carrier to the up- per story where all the women's hats and the ready- made garments of the time were displayed. A local man tried to make up a device to blow small cans thr- ough tin tubes using hand bellows for power. That was the style of most city stores, but of course they had electric power for compressors. It failed. I heard a- bout it and was sure I could run the cars upstairs on a sloping wire if I used a heavy spring. The owner was interested and I set up a wire and proved it could be done. So I got the job. It had to be done evenings when the store was closed, so I had a key. It was a lot of work as I had to cut a long slot through the floor and ceiling, as well as the springs at the lower end. So being alone I spent more time trying on cors- ets after I found the spare stock up in the third story where I could have time to hear the owner coming in which he did at times. None of course fitted very well, and as I soon found out, would not stay in place very well with no garters to hold them down. But I took one home. I wore it quite a lot after school and Sund- ays. My aunt had died and my cousin and I lived in the old house alone. She was away before I came from school and every evening. That gave me a very bad scare, such as all TV's who have to dress in a closed room can understand. I had taken two corsets home

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