Ever since my mother bought me my very own pair of black ladies' kid gloves after she had caught me wearing her kid gloves to pleasure myself with, I have developed a very strong affection for the ladies who work at the "Ladies Glove Counters" in the better department stores. Now I know that I am dating myself, but I go back to a time when every woman had scads of beautiful leather gloves and would never be caught out in public without her gloves.
I was always fascinated by the array of kid leather gloves in all colors, styles, and lengths. I was especially fond of the long white kid leather "debutante" gloves which were the vogue back then and still are today.One of the things that I would enjoy doing when I got a little older and able to get out on my own and had a little spending money, was to shop for gloves. Soon I had myself quite a collection of fine leather gloves. I also enjoyed calling the better department stores and chatting with the ladies who worked the glove counters. I would pretend to be interested in buying a pair of gloves and asked for a great deal of information about the gloves they carried. I was always interested in the longer gloves and wanted to know if they carried the "opera" length gloves. I found that the "opera" length 16 button gloves had the 3 buttons at the wrist. While they were quite fashionable they were more difficult to put on and remove. The longest kid glove without the "3 buttons" was a 12 button glove that came just over the elbow.
Most of the sales ladies were curious but some were on the rude side especially if I told them that the gloves were for myself. One sales lady in particular, her name was Helen, found it rather amusing that a man would be interested in wearing women's gloves. I spoke with her often and she was always very pleasant. As a matter of fact, I felt that we had become friends. I told her that I had very small hands and how my mother had bought me my first pair of kid gloves when I was younger because she caught me wearing her kid gloves to pleasure myself and that I had been wearing them ever since.
I imagine that there were periods when there were very few customers in the store and our conversations helped pass the time of day. I confessed to her how my mother had used me to model dresses that she worked on when she was a seamstress and how that was the beginning of my enjoying womens clothes. I told her that I was now a full fledged cross dresser and that I enjoyed going out in public especially to shop dressed as a woman. She was both curious and fascinated by this.