Anonymous

SHOW GIRL

FICTION

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

It was in the midst of the great depression, 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, helping with the girls ward- robe (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 four, and the youngest of the brood. I guess I was my mother's favorite, at any rate I received more of her loving care and attention than my older sisters, and was petted and pampered more than was good for me. Father worked on the rail- road, a brakeman, and was out on his run much of the time. I really never became close to him. He seemed to favor the girls more than his only son, at least I resented his attention to them, although he proba- bly spread his love and attention evenly among us. I felt that I should have the major share and so retired from him as much as possible, growing to envy my sisters and perhaps unconsciously imitating them a great deal, to his puzzlement no doubt. And then it happened! One icy night he fell under the train and was killed. Mother was left with

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