ransvestia

Certainly I wouldn't mind all my hometown people here knowing I flickered left and right genderwise. And I actually relished with a deep ticklement the profound giggles that bubbled up when I let people know I was "that way" - that delicious way. But there would be such a heavy taste of "tch-tch" with so many of the older, more conservative citizens! I couldn't go all-public here ever. Maybe in S.F. I could...

―

Like dating a girl who dug my pumpkin side. Perhaps in S.F. I could say freely to her, without fear of causing her to feel let-down, "I'll pick you up soon's I finish pressing the skirt and blouse I'm wearing tomorrow. Oh, and do you prefer me in D.C. or A.C. tonight? (Dull Clothes; Amorous Clothes)"

Wouldn't it be Heavenly ...!!

My Auntie outlined the plan. I'd go to college at S.F. State. (Dress optional?) Knowing I was proof of drugs, of virtuous living (Auntie knew I only had well-behaved Kenny, Dick and Davey, if not girlfriends, in to visit on baby-sitting PMs), I could have my own little nest on the fringe of the Haight-Ashbury. Where the longest-haired fellows are never scoffed at, even if one assumes they take obvious ad- vantage, exploit the freedom of hair and dress, go all soft and visually- entertaining evenings or anytime. On whim.

"You could, Susanne, be Cinderella for months on end without giving a thought to the pumpkin side. And of course I like you as a niece that boy next door is almost an unknown stranger to me by this time; I'd like to see you throw the pumpkin out completely and forever. But I do understand your joy in transition, even though I could never have that."

My answer was not in words but in a dizzying pirouette I'd perfected baby-sitting evenings - to celebrate joy-highs with. My pleated plaid boiled hip-high, whipping a candle down, shading two end-tables with its spread. As it fell back about my legs, Auntie Margaret observed wryly, "I perceive two things. One, that you relish being a Haight-Ashbury chicklet. Two, that you have no runs in your panty-hose."

"... maybe a S.F. State U. co-ed... sometimes," I offered.