J O Y and FUN

In May of 1998 my online LG chat friends and I went to our very first crossdresser meeting, which one of our LG's nicknamed 'camp'. This was actually held at the Rainbow Mountain Resort which is on my joylinks page. That was good because I don't like to actually camp unless it's inside of something. If there's not a carpet next to my bed, I'm in the wrong place. You want to 'rough it', you go right ahead. My 'roughing it' was experienced during my childhood when we didn't have enough money to have the correct things, so I'm not into 'roughing it' as an adult. The more comfy it is, the better I like it. Forget having a convection heater someplace in the house when one can have forced air heating into each room. Forget one blanket and a drafy window when one can have three blankets, an electric blanket and a non-drafty window. Yes, I like comfort, not roughing it so the name 'camp' almost scared me off when I first heard it, but no, it's not camping. Supposedly that term, 'camp', is a crossdresser's term, but I hadn't heard it used that way before. I just thought of sleeping bags and hard ground; two things I rather not remember. True, there were times in my childhood when whatever I slept on might have felt no different then the ground, but the ground was worse and I never liked camping out. Plus, there were the bugs and I do NOT like bugs; or spiders and snakes. No, 'camp' consisted of rooms with beds and carpets and showers and heaters in each room. That kind of 'camp' I can do. At crossdresser camp, we met each other in person for the very first time and that was the very first time I had ever met any LG crossdressers in person. I was slightly apprenhesive at first though, wondering if they would look a lot different from their inner selves, but they didn't. Even though their outward apperance did not look like their inner selves, they were not that far different in that they were very nice. Liesel picked me up and then we went and had breakfast someplace. The town seemed like a nice town but then after riding for 2 and a half days on a bus, maybe any town would. When my things wern't there at the bus station, (like they should have been), she lent me a petticoat and a skirt, and a few other things I wont mention to wear until they did come. Eventually they did come in (the same day too!) and so I was soon wearing my own things. We finally had our beading session. I have done beading forever and ever it seems but we were talking and I usually bead alone so maybe for that reason I couldnt keep the beads on the string and they kept falling off into my dress lap, or onto the floor. That seemed to happen to others, as well so I wasn't alone in that. All of us girls sitting around the table wearing petticoats, and Mr. Tom walked up just as several of my beads hit the floor. Mr. Tom did the honorable thing and ducked under the table to pick them up. I was ever so glad as I didn't really want to get down there. But Mr. Tom was only too glad to help, remarking from beneath the table that the view was rather good from down there - hee hee. I can only imagine. After our beading session, I gave Liesel some ribbon to take home. Pretty soon, Liesel came to my door and gave me a bag of things, and wanted me to accept it. I know how bad it makes me and others feel to not have gifts accepted, so I accepted it even though I felt like I was imposing to do it. In the bag was the beads, (oh, bunches and bunches!) and the skirt and petticoat! I was amazed. And she also gave me the socks too! Taffy was marvelous on the web, but she was even better in person! I met Jenny at a central meeting place - and I know she CAN 'pass'. That's her real hair and it is nice hair too! First off - Taffy passed out presents - boxes of Taffy for us all. Second off - Mr. Tom came in with presents sent to us from Pammie in AU. All the way from AU - can you imagine that! The postage must have been astronomical! Pammie gave me tram pictures on cloth, (something I can hang up), a postcard of trams, and a tram car model which is handmade from wood! Every time I get a present from someone though, I wish I had something for them too. Well, maybe next time. Later on in that year I did make something for her but right then I had no presents to give her. I was stretching my budget by even going on that vacation in the first place but I'd wanted to meet other LG's in person so I for sure didn't want to miss it. That's why I took a bus there, just so I could afford it. However, the bus ride was as much 'fun' as camping had been so I ended up not coming back that way after all. I was Soooooooooooooo Glad! Mr. Tom came in place of Aunt Tessy as Aunt Tessy could not come because of 'things' I wont mention. Mr. Tom is a petticoat admirier and so was a good addition to our group. He and Aunt Tessy go way back, so he had something to do with setting up Aunt Tessy's site, Petticoat Pond, just as my friend did in setting up mine. He was good on the joking side and he had the best looking beard I think I had ever seen! It was perfectly trimmed as if it had been done by an expert. Maybe it had been! Everyone was wonderful and it did not take the slightest bit of imagination on my part to believe that each girl was who she wrote like on the web and in e-mail. In fact, in most cases, the in-person person was even more charming then their web personality! I say, "in most cases", because some of the LG's there, were those who I had talked with only once or twice in chat and so I did not really know their web personality. Then I met Melissa Ann Rose, who I had only talked to through e-mail. I had known that she had hair with spiral curls and they looked nice. While I didn't know Melissa too well by the time we met at camp, I do know her better now, and she is very sweet. If you meet her in chat, you will like her. I met Erin first and then finally Colleen showed as a younger side of Erin. Before the end of the weekend, Colleen had given me a purse. It is shown in at least one photo as the pretty red one. I hadn't brought one with me but until you wear something without pockets, you dont understand the need for one, but I cant very well walk around with money under my hat so... At work I wore pants and didn't carry a purse because everyone had to wear pants there (that's boring if you ask me) and nobody else carried a purse either; not even the girls who wore makeup. I don't usually wear makeup. Neither did my mother. Whatever I needed to carry with me back then, fit in my pants pockets which was better for my job because some of my co-workers were snoopy and would go through anyones bag if they brought one. Sometimes someone's stuff would turn up missing (yes, they were theives as well as snoops) so carrying things in your pockets was safer. However, at camp, I had no pockets so I was left carrying things around in whatever I could carry them in, and I thought for sure I'd loose some of it, until Colleen gave me that purse, so it really came in handy. She also gave me a book on makeup. I have since tried some of it but it's hard for me to use it sometimes because my mother never wore any makeup but lipstick. Apparently in her town in her day, only the street walkers wore makeup I guess. Here it's different, but I see just enough women here that also don't wear makeup that I don't feel strange continuing on in my mother's footsteps. But I have worn it and the book helped, is the point I am making. Without it I might have never tried it as much as I have. Then I met Petricia E. Coates - or Pet for short who I had talked to a little in chat but since camp we have talked alot in chat. She wore the fullest petticoats I have ever seen in person, (or is that "in petti"?) The neatest one of course was the multicolored one. There is a picture of her sitting on a bench with the fluff rose up to her armpits! Now that is full! A Super poufed petti! A HUMOROUS HAPPENING AT MAY 1998 CAMP One of the fun things that happened was not planned, but it was fun to do it! Now get this. Crossdressers sometimes become shy, just because they are afraid of what someone will say. Not all, but some. But then most crossdressers dress their body age, and so it is more likely that they will go unnoticed as a crossdresser. However, we were NOT dressing our body age but our LG age. Therefore in NO WAY did we 'fit in' with the general visitor population at the resort. It was okay though because we were treated by others and the staff, just like anyone else, which was really really good. So get this now. Here we are, LG CDers dressed way different than anyone else, and here is our FIRST TIME to meet others like us! And we are kind of shy, but after coming all this way, NO ONE is going to 'chicken out'. Oh no, not by a long shot! So here we go, out the door where it began, and go to meet each other. Well, we WERE kind of shy to begin with, but as we conversed with each other, that soon wore off and we became the real us again. So later, here we are, standing out by the road and talking, and here come passerby's in cars, up the public road that ran through the resort, (lodge on one side, The Cherry House and the cabins on the other side). And they were going slow to see what they could see, if craning necks mean anything that is. Well, they got an eyefull, (or two) this time because WE were there. And guess what? By THAT time we wern't even ONE bit shy! Ah no we wern't. We sometimes waved at them with a real smile, sometimes curtisied, and sometimes gave a little whish with our petticoats so it was almost like a stage and the can-can. We were just playing with the situation you see. And it was GREAT fun! I did that when I was a teen too but we won't get into that. I have no idea why I did it but I've since seen other teens doing the same thing; showing off for the passing cars. Must be a trend or something. Anyway, back to the resort, up the road from where we were standing, there was a corner in the road. Occasionally, a passerby would be looking at us and then look up and mistake the lower parking lot entrance for THE corner, and turn just in time to turn into the parking lot. Then they had to back out and go the correct way. You see, they looked up just in time to see a corner, and took the wrong one. I think a lot of people do that very same thing but in a different kind of way. Here we are, bright and cheerful with an LG spirit and some others look at us as if we are crazy, yet they themselves are piddling with stuff that no person in their right mind should be messing with, but they are messing with it because they believe that 'that's what adults do', whether they really want to do it or not. So in my opinion, it's us as the LG's that keep the world bright and cheery, not those who are Mis-directed by traditions into living a dead and defeated life just to APPEAR 'normal'. To me, that is NOT normal at all. In my mind, WE ARE NORMAL. Well, even if it isn't true, I can beleive it, can't I??? All we were doing originally was just standing there. If you are ever thinking of going there, take Petricia with you so she can sit with you on the bench. When she sat down with her humongous multicolored petticoat on, it fluffed up to her ears! Anyway, I am GLAD that I got a chance to meet others who dressed as I did. If YOU dress like that then you will want to meet the group too! There is a bi-yearly meet at Rainbow Mountain Lodge, (the link is on my Joylinks page), and you can meet the other girls at the Petticoat Pond LG chat, (that link is ALSO on my Joylinks page). Petticoat Pond has an announcements section and they usually announce the meets at the resort. The months that they meet are: In May, and in November. I went to the first of these meets in May. Since then, they (but not I), met there in November along with one or two LG's from overseas.