I never really got in the habit of calling Charles “Dad.” I did call him Dad with my classmates. I did so for two reasons. First of all it felt weird calling him Charles with kids my own age and other people in Rosalia. Also his father had the same name. Around town when some spoke of Charles that spoke of the dad. When they mad reference to his son, my stepfather, they went with Junior.. I heard ‘Dad’ tell Mom one that as soon as his Dad died, he was going to demand they called him Charles. He hated being known as ‘Junior.” However, with Mom and Grandma and my friends in Spokane and later with Steve I always referred to him as Charles.
The same was not true of his Dad. He was always Grandpa to me. He lived in the same house as it had once been his farm. It would probably be most accurate to say we lived with Grandpa rather than Grandpa lived with us. He was a different person than his son. I had no issues with Junior as a whole but his father was much friendly and seemed more pleased to see me. I felt welcomed in his home but never truly welcomed by Mom’s new husband. Mom and Charles first met because Grandma and Charles’s father were casually dating. The first several times that I had reason to speak to my future Grandpa it had always been as Veronica. One day he was visiting and he had come into Spokane with his son. His son ran a few errands and when he stopped back by to pick up his dad he met Mom, who had just returned from overseas. Once mom and Charles starting day, Grandpa and Charles Sr ended their relationship. Not sure why not that it matters
A couple of years before Mom came home, Charles Sr came over to the house to pick up Grandma for a charity fundraiser they were attending. Grandma had decided that Veronica could attend the event. She did not tell Charles this news until he arrives to pick up his date for the evening. He seemed generally pleased that I would be attending the event with them. He joked about how much more fun it would be than to stay home with a babysitter — making ‘babysitter’ sound like the worst fate imagineable.
Of course i was very pleased when compliment my dress and told me i was a pretty little girl. At one point as we walked to the event from the parking lot he took my hand as Grandma wanted to search her purse for the tickets to the event. There was dancing at the event and he asked Grandma if he could take the evening second prettiest ‘young lady’ to the floor for a dance.
He did not make it into Spokane often so I only saw him a few times after that night . But he was always very nice to me. On the day Charles Jr would first meet Mom, Charles SR was disappointed to see me wearing my boy clothes. He said some nice things about the girl Veronica to my Mom, who was still uncomfortable seeing her son in a dress.
I was thirteen years old when I moved to Rosalia to live with Mom and her new husband. As it was his home, I am guessing Charles Sr could have vetoed his son’s unwillingness to have a sissy living under his roof. However, it has truly become Charles Jr’s farm and he was the one to do the work on the farm so new Grandpa s allowed the rule to remain.
One day about three month after i had moved into his home, Charles Sr was doing the babysitting. I found this amusing as he had once made babysitter sound so mean and undesirable. He asked me if i missed not wearing my girly clothes. I saw no reason to mislead him so of course i told him i missed dressng up, which is the name i had given to any time i wore girly clothes. He then mentioned he had a surprise for me. We went to his room and on his bed was a complete ensemble of the prettiest girly clothes.
Over the next few weeks he got me about half a dozen outfits i could wear when ever it was only the two of us at home. He also bought me a couple books on how to do makeup; One of the books was title Glamour Makeup 101. He made sure i had the best makeup and encouraged me to go for dramatic and bold makeup choices. On one afternoon i was fully dressed up and in full makeup when he said he had another package for me. It was a lingerie ensemble and he commented that as i looked so grown up i should dress grown up.
I am not going to get into the details of what happened after i put on the lingerie, a sweet pink color ensemble. I had been curious about sex for almost three years and i found myself with an opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. Grandpa was very gentle with me and made me promise to keep it secret what we had done. He then added, “if you tell anyone, I will be in a lot of trouble and we will never be able to do this again.”
This relationship did not last long as Steve moved into our home about four month later. However we had plenties of times alone. And there were even a few times i stayed home from school so Grandpa and i could spend the day togehter.
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