Me in tights - I

by Pantyhose

Another member of the blog editorial team begins to tell the story of how he came to be a regular wearer of tights. This time it is Pantyhose, whom I met in one of the precursors of the tights-excite chat room several years ago. Pantyhose lives in France, and his first language is French. This story is in four parts: -  we plan to publish one per week. Pantyhose would much appreciate comments on his story, so please don't be shy. G.]

I remember that I was 5 years old when I realised I liked wearing tights. It began just like that, it is as simple as that! It was the kind of woollen tights that babies and little children of both sexes are used to wearing. I felt comfortable in them. I wanted to keep them on as long as possible but on the other hand, I knew that as a boy I would have someday to stop wearing them. Any girl of my age wouldn't have to do so, but not me! It was unfair! I wondered how long I would be allowed to wear tights, but I didn't dare ask my mother from fear she would stop making me wear them. I thought my mom would be surprised by the question and think it was some kind of vice, so she would remove the tights from my wardrobe. I already had that feeling of guilt at this age! For the moment, I was happy in my tights, and I enjoyed the fact that every new day, I was allowed to wear them. It stopped when I reached the age of 6, at which it was time for me to go to school. My mom said: "Now, you are too old to wear tights". I was too afraid to protest. I didn't want to display my liking, so I let her do so without saying anything.

I kept on liking tights, even if I didn't wear them anymore. I remember once, my mother was taking me to school by foot. Ahead of us, another mother was doing the same with her little daughter. The girl was wearing white woollen tights, and I experienced a sense of injustice. "Why don't I have the right to wear tights?" I asked myself.

My sister was two years old, and at this age she had already displayed an interest in ballet dancing. A ballet course was offered not too far from where we lived and my mom enrolled my sister. As my sis didn't want to go alone, my mom enrolled me as well. Every Thursday (at that time, Thursday was an off-school day in France, now it is Wednesday), my sister and I would go to this ballet class. It started at 5.30pm and it was the time when Walt Disney's Zorro starring Guy Williams was aired on TV and I liked the show very much. I don't have the ubiquity gift, so I couldn't watch Zorro on TV at home and go to the ballet class at the same time (there was no VCR in 1968). Even if I liked Zorro, I would have been happy to be deprived of watching it if only I could have the opportunity to wear tights at the ballet class, but it wasn't the case.

The other dancers (mostly girls) had tights, but not me! I thought "maybe the next time", but the next time came and again, no tights for me at the ballet class. Like one year earlier, I didn't dare to ask my mother for tights. When I understood that my mom would never buy me tights for the class, I told her that I didn't want to go there anymore. The official reason was that I couldn't watch Zorro on TV (it was partially true), but the real and untold reason was that I had no tights for the ballet class. As I didn't go there anymore, my mom also removed my sister.

Two years later, I was 8. We had moved to another home. We lived there from 1969 to 1970. It was the time when miniskirts were very much in fashion. One night at 7pm, we were having dinner and the TV was on when an advert for DIM caught my eyes (DIM in France is the biggest French lingerie company; at that time they only produced hosiery). The advert showed tights, not the woollen tights I knew until then, but transparent and sheer ones. I never had seen any before. The advert left me quite in a state of shock! I didn't show my feelings, as I didn't want to display such a liking. It reveals the way I lived, that. Always secretly! I didn't talk about my interest for hosiery to anybody else until much later. But I digress. Let's go back to the story. I wanted so much to try on the same kind of tights I had seen on the advert. I did my best to spot every rerun.

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