On Saturday morning, Mum said we were allowed to bath ourselves,
but as it was the weekend, she’d choose our dresses…
and she chose the prissiest and frilliest monstrosities we had.
On Monday after school, it was a relief to be able to choose our own dresses again.
Over the following weeks,
we simply got used to being girls at home and boys at school,
even if we did wear knickers beneath our school pants…
it just became the ‘new’ normal.
Even all the girlie programmes on She-Beebies weren’t that bad,
apart from the Sindy Princess Cartoon Show; that was dreadful,
from the jerky animation and squeaky voices to the watered-down reworkings of classic fairy tales.
We’ve spent a lot of time at our grandmother’s house over the weekends.
She has a big garden with high walls and no one can see in.
We play croquet and swing ball,
hopscotch and balloon volleyball.
