the little rascal in a dress

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies. (Would you believe that I am so old that I saw my first Our Gang comedy in a movie theater as a short inserted between the newsreel, cartoon, coming attractions, and the main feature?)

Anyway, after my first taste of Spanky and his gang on the big screen, I sought out the series on television and over the years, I probably viewed every episode at least once including the early silent episodes.

One silent episode left a big impression on me. I only saw it two or three times, but I will never forget it. For years, I tried to track it down without much success. Even the Internet was not much help.

I was surfing the net last night, came upon a reference to the Our Gang series and it occurred to me that I had not had a go at looking for that episode in awhile. So, I googled the subject and found an excellent episode guide for the series.

Using that guide, I quickly found the episode I sought: One Terrible Day. It was the first episode listed and the first episode to be released (way back in 1922). Here is the brief description from the tv.com web site:

A wealthy society matron treats the underprivileged kids of the gang to an outing at her country estate. The gang turns both the journey and the visit at the farm into a chaotic adventure.

That sounds innocuous: just your typical Our Gang/Little Rascals plot, but there was a sub-plot that made an impact on my very impressionable pre-teen mind.

A little girl lived with the wealthy society matron (she was a niece, granddaughter, whatever, I don't remember). She was a well-behaved, little lady, however, when the gang arrived, she convinced one of the male gang members to switch places with her and they crossdressed in each other's clothes. After the girl and boy switched clothes, the girl became aggressive and dominated the boy in the dress.

I will always remember seeing the boy in the little girl's short dress and thinking that he looked just like a little girl. Also, I will always remember how the girl in drag pushed around the boy in drag.

As a kid, I was not aggressive and other kids bullied me and pushed me around. Maybe my subconscious mind decided that since I acted like that little rascal in drag that I should wear a dress, too. And a few years later, my subconscious mind won over my conscious mind and I donned my first (in a long line) of dresses.

Who knows?