I went to a public grammar school and to a Catholic high school. A couple of girls from grammar school made the switch to my Catholic high school (Hi, Deborah and Susan), but not one of the guys did so from the get-go, I had no male friends as a freshman in high school.
How do you make friends in high school? I don’t recall how I did it, but I made a lot of friends and a few are still friends today. One friend, Mike, was a tall, good-looking guy with a great sense of humor. I figured him for a girl-magnet, but I think he was as shy of girls as I was.
By high school, I was aware of transvestites and I was pretty sure I was a member of that club. The terms “crossdresser” and “transgender” were not in use back then. It was either “transvestite” or “transsexual” and I was pretty sure I wasn’t transsexual – at least, I convinced myself that I wasn’t a transsexual.
Anyway, by high school I was very aware of transvestites and always had my trans-radar powered-up in case I had any encounters of the trans-kind. And more than once, my trans-radar switched to full alert by things my friend Mike said – innocent comments, but revealing that like me, Mike was familiar with the territory.
After school, we parted ways, but since we lived in the same town, I would run into him occasionally. One time was a pulling-the-cat-out-of-the-bag moment.
I was in a check-out line at a local discount department store and I noticed Mike and his wife in the next check-out line. As I was about to call out his name and say hello, I noticed what he was purchasing – four or five woman’s dresses. His wife looked unhappy and disinterested and just stood in line watching him unload the dresses from the shopping cart, put them on the check-out conveyor belt and pay for the dresses. She. I did not attempt to speak to him because I did not want to embarrass him in case my trans-radar was correct. And I don’t know if he saw me in the next check-out line.
Since then, I only ran into him at wakes for the passing of mutual acquaintances. And each time, we talked about the good old days, but not a hint about the topic of trans.
And so it goes.
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| Wearing Shein |
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| David L Lander and Michael McKean femulating on television’s Laverne & Shirley. |