Ransvestia

By this time I knew what I was- -a TV-but there was no way I would admit it to anyone. I was ashamed of it and yet I couldn't wait for the next opportunity, months away.

Sixteen years ago I met the most wonderful woman in the world and fell quickly and hopelessly in love. About a year later we were married and now have three absolutely super kids, 10 to 15 years old.

The resultant problem is an old story to all married TV's. I felt that levelling with my wife could and probably would jeopardize a very happy home and life. For 15 years I continued to hide my urges, participating in a few skits in the various organizations I belonged to.

About a year after our marriage, the church Men's Club had their annual Christmas Ladies Night. I was asked to do the entertainment and wrote a 25-minute sketch that was a take-off on a women's after- noon TV show-celebrity interviews, cooking and gardening hints, fashion notes and book reviews. Guess who eneded up being the hostess of the show? Having no clothes of my own, of course, the constant problem arose as to where to get some that would look "nice." A friend of my wife's offered to make over a dress of hers to fit me, but, we knew of no one else who wore large enough sizes to finish "kitting me out,” as we used to say in the Army. The only answer was to buy a bra, stockings, a pair of black suede pumps (101⁄2C), a slip of my mother's (discarded), and a hat that would cover a fair semblance of a short hair style. Again the show was a success and my wife's friend was prolific in her praise of the job I did. There being no sense in throwing out the few items I had gathered together, we put them in a suitcase for sometime in the future when they "may be needed again." My wife accepted this “skill” as a hobby at which I was parti- cularly good and there was no problem around stage work in amateur productions where people knew me and accepted me as a "normal" family man.

For the next few years I "played in my suitcase for fun" in her presence once or twice a year with good natured tolerance on her part but little or no enthusiasm. Several other situations arose during this time that gave me the opportunity to play the "actress.” At those times I was able to borrow some clothes from an older woman in the office who dressed particularly smartly and was more my size. Several of the things she let me keep for the "costume cupboard at the church." Needless to say the costume cupboard was my own suit- case at home.

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