RANSVESTIA

things for yourself. A girl your age should try to help her mother more. My daughters knew how to do that when they were half your age. Go get a needle and thread," she ordered.

I did as I was told. I always seemed to do that lately. I guess I had had learned that arguing did no good anyway. When I returned with mother's sewing basket, she made me take off my dress and slip right then and there. Sitting in my bra and panties, she showed me how simple it was to sew the lace back on. Mother, who came in from the kitchen, approved, except that she made me get a housecoat "as a girl you better learn some modesty."

Once this subject had been broached, I was told that it was ab- solutely necessary for me to learn how to embroider and to knit and to crochet. "You should see the beautiful things my daughters made for themselves." I did not see the necessity at all, but from then on mother never let me rest a moment. As soon as I rested my hands in my skirt to just relax or watch television, mother would put me to work. I could kill the rascal who thought up that old Ukrainian pro- verb: "The devil loves empty hands." Then with a big sigh, I would get up and get the needlework I was doing at the time.

What made it bad was that mother always made me wear a fresh white apron when working with the needle. That always made it seem much worse. Aprons always made me feel feminine, but those white frilly and ruffled pinafores really got to me. She explained that when she was young she always wore the same thing home and at school. It was DONE. Well you know what that means by now.

The time was approaching when summer vacation would begin. Mother at least let me do my homework, even though I had to wear skirts. She only let me help with the cooking and the dishes after- ward. I lost a lot of time, washing my makeup off and in the morning trying to stick down my hair and combing it into a boyish looking head of hair, I was not too successful. The frequent washing mother insisted on made my hair springy and also it had a natural healthy sheen. Mother loved my hair. And I must admit that I enjoyed our nightly routine.

CONTINUED IN TVia # 90

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