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Dear Auntie Helga, Many years ago when I was still at school our mum would take my sister Kate and I away each year to spend 4 weeks of our summer holidays on the Yorkshire moors in a rented house close to Bridlington and Scarborough. Dad unfortunately had to stay at home to look after our newsagent shop but that meant we would share the house with my Aunty Margaret and her son Graham. We had been doing this for a number of years and whilst at first Graham was happy enough playing with us girls, as he got older he became more stand offish, and loathsome often saying nasty things and teasing us when we would not play or do the things he wanted. I was a year older than him so he left me alone mostly but he would pick on my younger sister who was more sensitive and who often ended up with bruises and in tears. Then one summer when I was 14 we arrived at the house as usual and settled in to our rooms. Graham was already laying down the law on what he would and would not be doing saying he was going off exploring tomorrow on his bike and we girls could tag along if we could keep up, which he doubted. Mum and Aunt Margaret said we should all just ignore him as he was being his normal obnoxious self. In the morning mum woke us and said to put on our jeans as we would be going out for a walk later. Down at breakfast mum was washing up some things from supper, the table was set but there was no sign of Aunt Margaret or Graham. As we sat waiting there was a sudden terrible noise from upstairs with loud voices shouting and things being bumped around. Mum told us to stay put and she went up to find out what was going on. The noise went on for about 10 minutes, we clearly heard scuffles and the slap of a hand on flesh and then the sound of Graham crying, then all went quiet. Kate and I just looked at each other in horror at the thought of what might be happening, then a few minutes later the door opened and between mum and aunt Margaret stood a very contrite Graham with a red blotched tearful face. After what we had just heard his tearful state was no surprise but the fact that he was standing there wearing a deep pink sleeveless dress with a ruffled hem, matching belt and buttoned to his neck was a complete shock. The dress fell to just below his knees and he had short white socks with pink frilled trim and white sandals with a buckled strap. His longish hair was adorned with a hair slide on each side of his head Aunt Margret was looking very stern and said "now Elizabeth lets not have any more nonsense, go and sit down with your cousins and let's get some breakfast", she gently pushed him forward into the room and then returned up the stairs. "Now girls" our mum said "Elizabeth here is taking the place of Graham for this holiday as we thought it would be much nicer than having that brute of a boy pushing his weight around for another year. Now what would you like to do today" Before we could answer aunt Margret returned carrying the jeans, pants and shirt that Graham had arrived in and she took out the kitchen scissors and cut them into shreds looking directly at Graham saying "you won't be needing those anymore, you will find all your new clothes for this holiday in your bedroom. Now come along let's finish breakfast so we can go for a walk". Kate and I were struck dumb, there was nothing we could say. There was our cousin Graham sitting before us in a dress with a look of thunder on his face clearly uncomfortable and embarrassed by what was happening to him. After breakfast aunt M told us to all go out and play while they cleared up but Graham said he was not going anywhere and stomped out towards an arm chair in the lounge. His mum moved quickly and before he reached the chair aunt M caught him and pinned him face down over the raised arm. She said "I warned you what would happen if you gave me any trouble" and in quick motion she lifted the back of his dress pulled his knickers down to his knees and smacked his bottom and the back of his legs three or four times while he pleaded for her to stop. His mum then released him and said "now Elizabeth stop crying like a baby, you only got what you deserved. Tidy your dress, pull your knickers up and I trust you will remember this before you disobey me again". Aunt M then asked Kate and me to take Elizabeth outside and to make sure that she did not spoil her dress. Graham was now completely humiliated, weeping and rearranging his dress and knickers in front of his two cousins whose eyes were out on stalks. Kate then said to me "he's wearing schoolgirl navy knickers" I replied "yes I saw that too" and we gave each other a knowing smile. How wonderful this was, there we were in our jeans and Graham, who the day before had been so macho, was now in a dress and knickers and completely at our mercy. Kate wasted no time and started to tease him as he walked to the garden. She started flicking the back hem of his dress up with a stick saying "Graham now you are a girl we can practice netball later and I will lend you a gym slip to go with your navy knickers, it will be such fun". If looks could kill, Kate and I would have died on the spot but he knew he had nowhere to turn for help. We then told him he had to play tag with us and he was "IT", and if he did not play we would tell his mother who would give him another spanking. So he had no choice and there he was awkwardly running around in a dress as we dodged his attacks. How lovely it was to see him in the reverse role to the tag games we played in previous years. He was soon worn out and Kate then tripped him over on the grass which made us both laugh when Kate said "oh dear Aunt Margaret is going to be annoyed, Elizabeth has dirtied her dress already". That first day was bliss. Mum must have known what was going to happen when she told us to wear jeans. Our roles were reversed, Graham now had to be careful of what he did in his dress while we were in jeans free to do anything we chose. I climbed on to a bow of an old tree and asked him if he was too scared to climb up with me. He could not resist such a challenge to his ego and as he started to climb aunt M came out and said "don't be silly Elizabeth girls don't climb trees in their dresses, now get down this instant". Kate said "it's such a shame you don't have any jeans here Elizabeth. Maybe you should play with a doll while we climb the tree". It was great fun to jibe him this way. We went out for our walk on the moors later that morning. Mum and Aunt Margaret put on slacks but Graham was left in his dress and had to negotiate styles, nettles and other obstacles as we went. He could not escape the strange looks he got from other walkers and by the time we returned home he looked fed up, tired and was very quiet. The three of us were sent out to the garden while lunch was prepared and Kate suggested we do handstands much to Graham's disgust. At first he pretended that he could not do it so Kate and I helped him. What pleasure it was to see him kick his legs up and his dress fall over his head baring his navy knickers and legs in the air. His mum sneaked a photo which she later threatened to reveal to his mates if he caused any further trouble. After lunch Graham's mum announced that they needed a few things from the shop for tea and that she and Elizabeth would go in the car to do the shopping. He was thus subjected to the public gaze of other shoppers as he and his mother toured the supermarket shelves, which I believe she did very slowly. After tea we all changed into our nightdresses but when aunt M realised that Graham had left his knickers on under his nightdress he was made to take them off with us all watching him. Seeing him turn red as he slipped the knickers from under his nightdress was a bonus at the end of a strange day. After this things calmed down somewhat. He had no choice but to wear the girls clothes his mother laid out for him each day but we sort of felt sorry for him and decided we could not spend a month teasing him so apart from the occasional jibe we settled for him becoming ones of us girls and we became good friends again. Aunt M would always pick clothes that were very feminine and often slightly inappropriate for whatever we were doing so that Graham was always more noticeable than the rest of us. When we went on outings he never got use to the stares as people looked intently to see if it was a boy in a dress or a girl with a boy's haircut. He hated wearing a tennis skirt and frilly pants for games of tennis and loathed having to wear a one piece swimsuit in the garden and on the beach. His mother insisted he got plenty of sun and the outline of his girls swim suit would have been a dead give away if his friends ever saw him in the shower after the summer. Aunt M made sure that Graham experienced every aspect of being a girl. She took him shopping to Marks to get some new underwear. He was made to browse an assortment of knickers and choose the ones he wanted. Not surprisingly Graham found it difficult to make up his mind so his mother chose pretty pink with roses and lace edging. Graham was then made to take them to the shop assistant and pay. His boy looks must have given the sales assistant something to talk about to the next customer. One day we were told to get ourselves ready as we were all going to Flamborough Head. Graham was wearing a full circle wide hemmed dress and as we came on to the cliff top the wind was gusting and lifted his dress above his waist revealing the pretty pink knickers he had bought from Marks. We all laughed as he fought to get the dress down around his legs and we spent the next hour walking along the cliff top with Graham struggling to keep his dress under control. Graham's mum seemed to enjoy seeing him struggle in girls clothes and insisted we continued on the walk. Fortunately for Kate and me, we had been told to wear jeans again that day. On his birthday his mother produced a white and pink flowered dress with short puff sleeves, a billowing net petticoat and pink heavily frilled knickers, for him to wear. With a pink ribbon tied in a bow on his head he looked like Alice, from Alice in Wonderland and found it very difficult to sit down in the dress without it rising up to reveal his knickers. His presents were a collection of young girls make-up and perfume which he was then taught how to his apply and wear each day for the rest of the holiday. I am sure he did not forget his 12th birthday in a hurry. At the end of the holidays he asked his mother for his boy clothes to travel home and much to his horror she told him he would have to travel in a dress as all his clothes were at home. So he did travel home in a dress and I was told later that he was fortunate that none of his mates saw him arrive. That was the last holiday we had with Graham and Aunt Margaret. Mum did say that Graham now worked in the city and had a couple of kids of his own but we never saw him again. I suppose he stayed away as he would be too embarrassed by our memories. Looking back I do now feel sorry for him because it must have been awful for him to be made to wear girl's clothes for a month but to this day we do still chuckle when Kate and I recall that time. I did eventually ask mum why they had done that to him. All she would say was he got what he deserved and after this he became a much more considerate young man. I came across your site by accident while surfing the net and I thought your readers might be interested in what happened to my cousin some years back. Best regards, Anne Thank you for sharing such a delightful remembrance with us Anne. I do hope that he learned a lesson from his petticoated summer holiday. Auntie Helga |