Breasts aren’t generally on my mind. I wasn’t always in this frame of mind. If a story about bras isn’t for you, there’s no need to read on.
The word brassiere and bra have a different feel. Brassiere seems so 19th century with visions of formality: ladies in corsets etc. “Bra” (short for brassiere) is so modern and bland. There must be a better name? Over the shoulder boulder holder is good but so passé .
When I was young lass, before I even had a bra, my friends and I stuffed (maybe taped) waded Kleenex in our shirts to give the look of maturity. We went here and there like that. One afternoon our vision enlarged; We decided to put oranges in our shirts. There weren’t any in the house so I went next door and asked our neighbor. I told her I’d return them after. Now I wonder what she thought I was up to. Somehow we adhered the citrus to our flat chests and walked to the movie theater to watch Pollyanna, my favorite movie. But while standing in line to buy tickets, one of my oranges slipped out and rolled. This red faced Jane Mansfield in training was beyond embarrassed!
I got my first bra in 6th grade in Berkeley. Even though I hadn’t developed much yet, I told my mom I wanted one. She replied, “Is that what the girls are wearing now Dear?” She took me to Hink’s department store where a warm middle aged stout veteran fitter brought me a training bra! That was very disappointing.
Mass developed and life in the undergarment world seemed fine until the age of 13. I had another embarrassing, rather mortifying experience. My brother, 9 years older than me, went away to college in Vermont. While visiting him, we went out for dinner. He brought some of his cute friends. Around the table the guys started laughing but I wasn’t in on the joke. I began to feel self conscious and went into the ladies room. In the mirror I saw that my very stiff pointed cup bra (think Madonna) had one cup pointing to the north and the other dead south! Oh those were the days!
Nowadays many women are having breast implants. At this time in my life, that doesn’t appeal to me at all. I have that all out of my system!
I’m glad to laugh at all this now. I’d love to hear some of your adventures while growing up.
