Dear Miss Susan,

I am glad to hear that the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' game was such a success. I promised to write to you to tell you and your readers about my first experience of petticoating, which took place in the late 1940s.

It all started when I was about ten years old.  My mother (Audrey) and my Aunt Anne were identical twins.  While in college they met, and later married, brothers in a double wedding ceremony.  This was just prior to World War II and both my father and uncle served in the armed forces.  During the war years the two families lived together in one house. After the war was over the families lived in separate houses but within a block of each other.  We not only visited frequently, but I came to accept my aunt and uncle as my second parents as did my cousins. My sister, Jane, who is three years younger than I, and my cousins: Jim, who is two months younger than I, and Jim’s sister Ruth, who is four years younger than I, were all together one April Saturday shortly after Easter.

On a Saturday when we would be usually out riding our bikes or playing ball, the heavens had opened up and it was pouring rain all day long.  My father and uncle were working on a project that took them out of town for the weekend. My cousins and their mother, Aunt Anne, were at our house for the weekend.  Jane and Ruth were playing house with their dolls while Jim and I were bored just looking for something to do.  We had tried some board games; we played some music on the radio (this was before TV) and had a wrestling match.  Our mothers broke up the wrestling match so our next object of attention was the girls.

Jim thought it would be great sport to kidnap one of the dolls and hold it for ransom.  Before we could even compose our note of demands, a posse of mothers was upon us, followed by two crying sisters.  The doll was returned and we spent 30 minutes jail time sitting in a corner of Mom and Dad’s bedroom.

By now the girls were having a tea party for their dolls.  They had the table set with chocolate chip cookies and some apple wedges.  It looked good.  Jim and I were hungry so we helped ourselves.  This was the end of Mother’s and Aunt Anne’s patience.  Jim and I were promptly ushered back into the bedroom and I thought we were going to be spanked.  Mother had not spanked me since I was five, but I really thought she was going to do it again.  She was so mad. I could see fire in her eyes.

'How dare you boys treat the girls with so little respect, and especially after the punishment for ‘kidnapping’ the doll', Mother admonished us. I can't remember what the exact words were on this day, but have done the best I can. It is a day I recall very clearly.

Aunt Anne chimed in, 'It appears the boys want to play with the girls and their dolls'.

Jim and I said nothing. It seemed to be the best approach under the circumstances.

Mother suddenly calmed down and looking directly at her sister she said, 'Anne, you are right.  The boys should play dolls with the girls. What a fitting punishment'.

Jim came out with, 'We don’t want to play dolls. We were just teasing our sisters and having fun.  We did not mean any harm and besides what are a few cookies and some apples?'

Mother paid no attention to Jim, but continued by saying, 'I think Jane and Ruth would love to play with two little girls like Missy and Cissy. Don’t you Anne?'

'I think that would be a great idea', replied Aunt Anne.

'OK boys', said Mother, 'this is the way it will be for the rest of the afternoon.  If you do not cooperate, we will extend the time. Anne and I are going to dress you as little girls and when you are dressed you will go in and ask Jane and Ruth to teach you how to play dolls'.

I shouted, 'Mother! I am not a sissy girl, and I certainly do not intend to dress as a girl nor play dolls!'

'Go get the chairs you were sitting on earlier and come sit in the corner and do as you are told. Your Aunt Anne and I have some preparation to make.  We had better not hear another word from you two if you know what’s good for you'.

I was hoping Mother was trying to scare us and this would end with another corner time.  Jim and I did as we were told.  Hearing the commotion, our sisters came up to see what was going on.

Mother told them, 'Go play with your dolls for a little more now, but in about an hour we are planning a big surprise for you if you don’t bother us again until then'.

The little girls ran off and left us to our fate.  Mother and Aunt Anne went into the bathroom and talked for a long time.  I heard water running into the tub and began to smell the perfumed bubbles from my sister’s bubble bath soap. In a few minutes Aunt Anne came and got Jim from his chair and warned me to stay where I was.

I soon heard Jim’s voice in loud protest, 'NO! NO! NO! I don’t want to! I’ll smell like a sissy!'

The next thing I heard was water being splashed and within ten minutes a very subdued Jim came out of the bathroom wrapped in a pink towel smelling like my sister.

It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out I was next.  Mother just stood in the doorway and used her finger to signal me to come into the bathroom.  I was small for my age and had learned long ago not to argue with Mom when her mind was made up.  I also knew a shower would clean off the perfume. I did not protest and went to my fate while Aunt Anne tended to Jim.

Sure enough, the bubbles were awaiting me. I had to take off all my clothes and bathe for ten minutes and when I finished, Mother had a pink towel for me. Little did I know this was but the beginning.

From time to time my mother would baby sit for one of our neighbors.  She kept a supply of diapers and waterproof panties on hand because the little toddler girl was not yet toilet trained. When I came into the bedroom from the bathroom, I saw a large cloth diaper folded on the bed.  I balked.

'Mother!  If you think I am going to wear a baby diaper, you must be crazy', I screamed.

Mother said, 'I don’t see why not.  Jim has one on', and with that Aunt Anne pulled the towel Jim was holding close to himself away and revealed a diaper on the loins of my cousin covered with pink rubber panties.

The look on Jim’s face was one of total defeat.  He just could not look at me and I could see big tears in his eyes.  If he had made any sound at all it would have been sobs of grief.

Mother and Aunt Anne both grabbed me and placed me on the bed on a baby’s changing pad.  I was kicking and fighting all the way, but they were too strong for my young body. Mother finally applied four hard stinging slaps to my rump and told me to be quit.  Realizing I had no other option, I stopped struggling.  Aunt Anne held me while my mother slid a diaper under my bottom.  She applied a generous amount of baby powder and proceeded to pull the dreaded cloth between my legs and fasten it with large diaper pins.  The next step was just as humiliating if not more so.

Mother picked up a slender rectangular box from the dresser.  It contained Playtex Rubber Baby Panties.  This was well before the days of plastic panties and disposable diapers.  The rubber panties were large size, but designed for children much younger than I.  However, they did stretch.  The ones she chose were pink for the little girl.  To my horror the rubber panty easily slid up my legs and stretched completely over the bulk of my diaper and covered it with a pink rubber coating.  I kicked and squirmed and this only allowed the panty to fit tighter and made a horribly loud rustle.
 
'This will make you ‘socially acceptable', Mother said.

This was the advertising slogan the Playtex Rubber Company used for their baby panties. I was not impressed and joined my cousin in Gloomsville.

'Now listen you two', Mother said, 'the diapers serve two functions. One is to keep you modest under the dress you are going to wear as part of your punishment. The second is to remind you that if you do not fully cooperate, things can get worse. Anne and I are going to dress you as six or seven-year-old little girls like your sisters and you will play dolls with the girls for the remainder of the day.  If you decide to act up, we will remove your big dress and use one of the girls' baby doll gowns on you and let the girls feed you a bottle and you can use your diapers for their intended purpose.  We can also extend the time of your punishment and send you to school in diapers under your clothes. With your sisters knowing you have on diapers, how long do you think your secret would remain a secret?  If you behave and join in playing with the girls, they will not know you have diapers on.  The secret remains here.  It is up to you.  Full cooperation and no one knows. Fail to cooperate and it is public information.  You will both wear a dress for the rest of the day and you will be put to bed in a girl’s nightgown tonight, and in the morning you can dress in you regular boys' clothes for church, if you cooperate.  Failure to cooperate and more rowdy behavior will well mean more time in petticoats'.

'Mom do we have to use our diapers?’ I asked.

'Not as long as you cooperate fully.  If you need to go, Anne or I will accompany you to the bathroom and help you remove your diaper and replace it when you are finished.  You are to be Missy and Cissy, age six or seven, but if you act smart and give us lip, we can adjust your age very quickly.  Any questions?  If not it is time for our girls to get dressed'.

'What if I behave and Charles acts up?  Will I be punished too?' asked Jim.

'You are in this together. You both antagonized the girls. So it is all for one and one for all', replied Aunt Anne.

Mother went into Jane’s room, and shortly returned with an armload of clothes.  My sister Jane was a large girl for her age, while both Jim and I were on the small side. Boys did not 'grow up' so fast in those days. The first thing she gave each of us to put on over our diapered loins was a princess style petticoat/slip.  The shoulder straps were wide and had lace on each side of the strap.  The material was a cotton sheen that made it feel very slick, almost like satin. The bodice was rather tight, the waist was high, and the skirt was very full.  There were at least three layers of petticoats attached to the bodice each with two inches of lace around the hem.

Mother helped me with my petticoat/slip and Aunt Anne helped Jim.  There were three little buttons in the back that would be impossible to attach yourself.  We knew we were in this garment until someone helped us out.  I also knew this was going to be a long Saturday afternoon and evening.

Mom selected Jane’s Easter dress for me.  However, it was not the one she had just worn this past Easter but one from a couple of years ago.  This was a little cotton frock, cute for a little girl about six, but certainly not for a boy almost eleven.  The blouse part was white with pink and blue bunnies in different poses both in front and back of the bodice. The skirt was a full pleated pink skirt trimmed at the hem with white lace.  There was also lace around the Peter Pan color.  As soon as I saw the dress I knew I was in for some real teasing from my sister and cousin.

'Mom, This is too sissy! Can’t you find a plain dress, or better yet shorts and a top like the girls have on now?' I pleaded.

Mom said, 'This is your dress.  It's either this or a baby dress. It is your choice'.

I knew I was stuck with the dress and allowed Mother to pull it over my upstretched arms and down over my slip.  It barely covered the slip and any lifting or moving of my arms would reveal my diapered bottom because the slip and dress ended high on my upper legs.

Jim did not fare any better. His dress was a party dress my sister had worn to many of the birthday parties little girls attend.  She had really outgrown the dress both in size and taste.  It was made from a yellow satin material with ribbons and lace everywhere. It was way too much for Jim, who dissolved into tears as Aunt Anne helped him pull it on.

We were each given a pair of white ankle socks, and our mothers made us stand in front of the full-length mirror so we could see ourselves, which was part of the punishment.  This was most devastating to our delicate male egos.  We were now sissies! The mothers turned our punishment chairs so we faced the mirror and told us to pull on our socks and fasten our Mary Jane type shoes. We could see a problem.  When we sat down the full skirts of the petticoats came up and revealed our rubber pantied bottoms.  We would have to be real careful and keep our legs together and keep our skirts down or our sisters would soon know our 'secret'.  It was going to be bad enough having the girls see us in a dress but there was no way I was going to let them see my rubber panties.

Jim said, 'Mom, we need our underwear.  If we don’t have something to cover our diapers – the girls will see'.

Aunt Anne said, 'Girls - and sissies - don’t wear underwear.  What do they wear, Jim?'

Red-faced Jim replied, 'Panties'.

'That’s right. Now do you mean that you two sissies want panties?  We really thought you would rather be spared the humiliation of having to wear panties.  Do you mean you are asking or even begging to have panties on your sissy bottoms?' said the smiling Aunt Anne.

'Yes', we both chimed in, 'we need some panties!'

In the meantime Mother had returned to Jane’s room and returned with two white boxes in her hand that looked like an open present.

'Here is a present that some of your sister’s friends gave her for her last birthday.  You can both use these', Mother said.

I opened the box she gave me to discover a pair of bloomer panties in shocking pink with white lace around the legs and waist and little white ribbon bows down the leg seam.  Jim opened his box and found bloomers made from white satin with four rows of lace across the seat around the leg openings and a big pink heart on the front.

'Mother! We can’t wear these bloomers.  Why can’t we have some white cotton panties like Jane usually wears?' I insisted.

'First of all, your diapers and rubber panties are too bulky for regular girls' panties.  Second, these are the bloomers you will wear, or nothing and take your chance with the girls seeing you diapers.  If you wear the bloomers they will be so distracted by your bloomers they will never think about looking further up your dress.  The choice is yours', said Mother.

This left us with a terrible choice.  We could put on the bloomers/panties we requested, or we could run the risk of the girls seeing our diapered bottoms.  We elected the bloomers and flipped a coin to see who wore which bloomer.  Heads was the pink and tails was the white.  Pink bloomers went under my skirt and Jim pulled the satin white bloomers with lace across the seat over his diapered bottom.

These were the days when no self-respecting boy would go more than three weeks without a haircut. Jim’s and my hair was short.  There was no way of hiding the fact we were boys under petticoat punishment.  We would have to face our sisters and take whatever teasing they chose to give - and it was plenty.

Aunt Anne led the way to the living room where the girls were playing.  Jim and I tried to walk normally but the bulk of the diaper kept our legs apart and we waddled like a pair of ducks. As we entered, she said, 'Jane and Ruth, I want you to meet some new girls who would like to learn how to play dolls.  This is Missy' (pointing to Jim) 'and Cissy' (pointing to me). The girls could not contain their laughter.

Jane laughed, 'Ha ha ha look at my sissy brother and cousin. Look at how they are dressed and they even smell like girls!!'

Jane came right up to us to inspect our dress.  In fact, before I realised it, she pulled up the skirt of my dress to see my bloomers.

' Well I never, my sissy brother is not only wearing my old Easter dress but he also is wearing bloomers. We would never be caught dead wearing silly pink bloomers like those.  He really is just a big sissy', Jane howled with laughter

Ruth was exploring Jim’s dress and discovering Jim’s bloomers. 'My sissy brother has lace all over the seat of his bloomers like a baby.  Is the big baby going to wet 'her' panties?'

We received no sympathy or comfort from our sisters.  They went on and on at our expense, teasing us without mercy.  They proceeded to place a rather large doll in each of our arms.   Our first assignment was to change our baby and give it a bottle.  The girls carefully supervised us as we attempted to change the doll’s diaper.  We placed the doll on the sofa and succeeded in making quite a display of our petticoats and bloomers as we bent over to change our dolls. The girls and our mothers teased us about our 'unladylike' display.  We had to diaper the dolls several times before the girls were satisfied, and then we had to sit in a little rocker and rock our respective dolls, give her a bottle and sing her a lullaby.  The girls again broke into unrestrained laughter at our feeble attempts to sing a lullaby.

The girls’ next idea was a tea party for the dolls and their new sissy friends.  The first thing the girls did was to run off to Jane’s room and gather some old clothes mother had given them for playing 'dress up'.  Back in the living room the girls made quite a production of dressing in a slip and dress Mother used to wear.  It was way too big for them, but it made them feel grown up.  We were each given a hat.  Mine was a straw hat with flowers on the side and Jim had a hat with lace all over the top.  Mother was able to attach the hat to my short hair using some bobby pins.  Aunt Anne did the same for Jim.

The next indignity was the painting of our fingernails.  The girls really milked our obvious discomfort to the fullest as we had to sit still holding our fingers up and out while the the bright pink polish dried. After our nails were dry we had to set the little doll dishes and fix the table for the tea party.  We were well instructed and had to repeat the process several times before the girls let us get the cookies and slice the apples.

I never knew my sister and cousin had such imaginations.  Jim and I were subjected to every indignity the girls could think of, and some that our mothers suggested as well.  Jim and I tried to contain ourselves, but it was too much.

'Mom!' I said, 'This is too much.  All we did was have some fun at the girls’ expense, and you are making us put up with all this...it is just too much, we are quitting'.

'Well Cissy. That is quite a display. Obviously you do not like being a big girl.  That little display will cost you your panties'.

The girls were completely perplexed.  They could not see why taking off the terribly humiliating frilly bloomers would be additional punishment.  Jim, on the other hand, looked like death warmed over. All the color drained from his face as Aunt Anne reached under his skirt to remove his bloomers and Mother did the same to me.  The bloomers were draped across chairs in the living room to remind us we had lost them.

Jim and I really tried to keep or legs together and our skirts down as we returned to play with the girls.  The girls had decided that we should have our own set of paper dolls and proceeded to get new books and scissors for us to cut out our dolls. We got to con- centrating on staying on the cut-out lines, and relaxed our guard.

I think you could hear the shriek for miles. 'The sissies are in rubber panties! Do they have diapers on too?' shouted Ruth.

Mother made us tell the girls all about the bubble bath and diapers and rubber panties and how we felt when we had to wear dresses.  Nothing was left out. But the final indignity came when we were dressed in our nightgowns and ready for bed.

In front of the girls and mothers we had to sit on the toilet as little girls and use our diapers for their intended purpose.  We were put to bed with wet diapers and the rubber panty did keep our bed dry all night.

In the morning (Sunday) we were allowed to get out of our sissy clothes, shower and dress as young boys ready for church.  After church we had to launder the bloomers, diapers and rubber panties.  After they dried, they were stored in the back of our dressers as a reminder to behave.  They were used again several times, but that is another story.

Cissy Williams

Cissy Williams has been kind enough to write out to the best of his memory his first experience of petticoat punishment, and a very complete one it was, too. The two boys must have felt terribly humiliated at having to change their doll's nappies, and sing them to sleep with a babyish lullaby with the younger girls there to 'encourage' them.

Cissy writes, 'I never knew my sister and cousin had such imaginations.  Jim and I were subjected to every indignity the girls could think of, and some that our mothers suggested as well'. I can assure readers that when it comes to joining in the petticoat punishment of boys who have been teasing them, then girls have very vivid imaginations indeed.

Petticoating is especially effective when the boys are forced to wear much more elaborate and prettier clothing than the girls, and it must have been devastating for Cissy and his cousin to have to appear, dressed as they were, before girls wearing shorts.
Susan