Five Foot Two

By

Jacquimac

Edited by Jonelle

Part two

At breakfast I admitted to everyone that I secretly dressed up in girls clothes , they all started to laugh and said " We know" , well that started a discussion about what I wanted to do, I told them I wanted to be a girl.

Dad phoned a doctor he knew and I had an appointment for that afternoon. After he went to work the rest of us got ready to go into town were I was dropped off at the hair dressers. Gran told the hairdresser what she wanted doing and gave her a picture.
About an hour later They returned to collect me and after paying and thanking everyone we headed home, I could see that they had been busy while I was having my hair done.

That evening it was back to the dance studio and a full dress rehearsal, As soon as I entered the room I was swamped by the girls, the boys just gave me weird looks.

The revue was at the end of the week in the school gymnasium, they picked that as the venue because it had tiered seating along three walls.

At last it was Saturday and the show time, we had all turned up early so that hair and make-up could be done, the revue wasn`t a long one about an hour and half from start to finish and we were eager to strut our stuff.

The Jazz Band started with Alec in top hat and tails singing

Five foot two, eyes of blue,
But oh, what those five foot could do,
Has anybody see my girl ?,
Turned up nose, turned down hose,
All dressed up in fancy clothes,
Has anybody seen my girl?
Now if you run into a five foot two
Covered in fur,
Diamond rings and all those things,
Bet-cha life it isn`t her.
But could she love, could she woo?
Could she, could she, could she coo?
Has anybody seen my girl?

With around of applause and we all took a bow. At the same time I came on doing a Solo Charleston. We were followed by dancers doing the Bunny hop followed The Lindy, and Black Bottom interspaced with songs of the period. At the end all the singers started singing Five Foot Two and all the Flappers came on dancing the Charleston, we had a great night and enjoyed it. As we finished the gymnasium erupted with applause

Everybody congratulated us for putting on a fine show and the local theatre manager offered us a chance to take part in a show they were going to do charting music and songs from the 1920`s to the 1950`s, Of course we accepted they even included the Jazz Band and we would get a good donation from ticket sales.Of course some of us would have to learn dances from the 1940`s and 1950`s and it was going to be a lot of hard work, but we would get better costumes, professional make-up artists and more important for the dance club Publicity.

I had attended the appointment dad had made for me and the wheels were put in motion for me to start living as a girl full time, I was seeing a specialist in Gender issues on a weekly basis and he was dealing with the school and educational authorities, It wasn`t all plain sailing there was the bullying but soon ended when the Alec and the rugby team threatened the bullies, Teasing I could put with and Dad was handling any issues that other parents might have.

School finished for the summer holidays and the show was only a month away, We really put in the work getting the dancing right, then came costume fittings. As mine was original 1920`s manufactured a couple of the costumes were loaned to the dressmakers. Costumes for all three periods were finally put together and the dress rehearals were good but fun at same time.

The show was in three parts, one for each period, and we were all performing in two periods so costume changes were rushed and everything laid out ready to go from one to the other .
Again we turned up a couple of hours early to get ready, This wasn`t just a one night show so we wanted to get everything right for the opening night, and you feel the tension in the theatre

All the girls had their mums helping with costumes so they didn`t spoil hairdo`s and make-up. Gran had produced some feathers for the Flappers girls to wear in their headbands just as they did in the 20`s.
Oh boy did we look good when we were all made-up and in costume, camera flashes were going off everywhere as proud parents took photo after photo.