Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Too True Tuesday - A Boy Named Sue

I remember someone from High School. I didn’t know this person, except to see her in the hallways, but she fascinated me to no end.

In 1975, I graduated from High School at the age of seventeen. I hated High School, so I took the accelerated program that allowed me to get out a year early. My new graduating class had 1,200 students in it, 990 of which actually made it out the traditional way. I didn’t know anyone, except by sight. I just marked the days until I could leave.

One person I saw on occasion was a senior boy named Sue*. He was a light skinned black boy, with long brown hair, long painted artificial fingernails, a bright shiny lip-glossed mouth, a tight skinny ass, long, long legs and budding boobs. Now, when I say my school didn’t rate high on the progressive scale, I think most of you will know what I mean. This was 1975 after all and the suburbs.

Sue sashayed around the halls, giggling with the cheerleaders and flirting with the football players. She had the classic, overblown Queen gestures you see in movies, only her drag looked more natural. Her teachers loved her, she always had a huge smile on her face and people flocked around her. That is what I find amazing to this day. No one ever beat her up, pushed her around or called her names, despite the fact that she was completely different from anything any of us had ever known.

I always wonder what happened to her. Her parents gave her a sex change operation for a graduation present.

*Not his real name.

7 comments:

  1. Wow. What a lovely story. I was bracing myself for the usual ugly attacks, etc...and instead...

    a sex change operation for a graduation present?

    In which enlightened corner of the world did you grow up?

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  2. Sadly, today he'd fear for his life in high school and his father would kick him out of the house. Your school and his parents came from some WAY distant year.

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  3. Jenn: It amazes me because we really didn't think it that odd, it just was.

    Doggirl: Yeah, I can't imagine what would happen today. And thanks for stopping by.

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  4. Sherry: My HS yearbook is in my parents' attic. This makes me want to get it and look him up.

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  5. Sherry: My HS yearbook is in my parents' attic. This makes me want to get it and look him up.

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  6. Sometimes people really, really surprise you.

    And I love that her parents gave her a sex change as a present.

    "I got a car! So what did you get?"
    "A vagina!"

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  7. Jay: Can you imagine the commercial for that?

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