RANSVESTIA

been long because I remember sitting on it and my mother telling me to pull it around my neck so I wouldn't get it dirty. They taught me how to comb, brush and braid my hair. Sometime they would let me wear it as the girls do today. Now and then I would ask mother to do my hair up on top of my head like hers. She would oblige, using grandmother's switch to help out and let me wear one of her long dresses. When I was six years old I would take her hair down, comb, brush and braid it at bed time every night. As far back as I can remember. I wore pretty little dresses or pinafores. When we went to Sunday School I wore a big how on the back of my head and of course I was put in the girl's class. I must say that I was a perfect little lady.

One day after I had reached my tenth birthday, mother hitched up old Ned to the buggy and said she was going to town to get me some new clothes for school. Up until this time I wasn't allowed to go to school because of a speech defect. caused by meningitis eight days after birth. which I somehow lived through. She returned that afternoon with a lot of packages. Of course I was all excited like any girl would be. She dropped them on the table while she went back and unhitched, watered and fed the horse. We had talked about school and about having to buy some new clothes. I just knew I would have some new dresses and other things. So as soon as she was outside I took a peek What a surprise! The first box I opened was a pair of ugly old boy button shoes and the next some old long black stockings that they wore in those days. Just then grandmother came in the room and caught me. She ran me out of the house and I couldn't understand why.

My mother finally called me back in the house for a talk. She told me I was not a girl by the name of Susanne, that I was a boy with the name of James, then the rest of the story. As young as I was it was quite a blow. I cried myself to sleep that night because I had been told how unfortunate it was to be born a dirty little boy. I had never been told anything about sex up until this time. I can see now why mother and grandmother would never let me see them in the nude. Why they would always run me out of the room when they changed clothes or dressed in the morning, which always puzzled me.

The next day mother cut off my beautiful curls, which by then were down to my waist. She saved my curls and tied them into a switch. She made me put on my new boy clothes. I cried so hard she felt sorry for me and let me put my girl clothes back on and pinned my curls back on for the rest of the day.

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