RANSVESTIA

The many anxious moments and crises of graduate work finally ended and my wife and I persevered. I think the lingerie had something to do with the success, but it was not the end of dressing.

After graduation, I got the job I actively sought and enjoyed the work the first year. Our son was born during this period. Then I was trans- ferred to another division and started running into conflicts with my new boss. The relationship rapidly deteriorated and I no longer looked forward to going to work in the mornings. My wife knew I was ex- tremely depressed. Instead of releasing my frustrations through dress- ing, I played and managed our agency's softball team. We played other agency teams once or twice a week. The therapy worked only tempor- arily because it was team effort, and that didn't do me any good when we were not playing. My family and I took frequent walks and did a lot. of window shopping to work off my depressions. The shopping only fueled my burning desire to dress again.

The opportunity came when I returned home early from a trip. My wife and kids had gone west to visit her relatives and I was all alone. Panty hose were coming into vogue so I bought a high sheer pair and my first bra 38C. I put the whole works on and used a tee-shirt and a wrapped towel for outer garments. My feet squeezed into my wife's pointed flats. What rapture I felt even though I looked like King Kong in a dainty ballet outfit. Several nights in a row I dressed like this until the family came home. By then I was "dressed out" and happy to have the brood back.

Finally I was transferred to another division and my spirits picked up considerably. Even though I put in a lot of overtime, I didn't mind it and the desire to dress subsided. The bra and pantyhose were stashed away and didn't get taken out again until we decided to move back to the southwest to pursue a doctorate degree. I threw them away then.

The demands of working full time and striving to meet academic re- quirements heavily taxed our good marital relationship. I could not sleep and what little time I was home was only a physical presence

not

a more important mental one. I wore panties, girdle and nylons as often as possible.

The summer of 1968 things bottomed out. I was working full time and taking a time consuming language course in Russian. The nights were long and lonely while studying instead of giving my wife the com-