"Hey, Ida, you've never told us about your car," I reminded her.
"Oh yes," she giggled. "Let me tell you about that.
Traci is comin' up here in a couple of weeks, she's a handy-woman of sorts that knows how to change a transmission--it had somehow slipped--and she can do that, she's fixed cars for people over the years.
As a matter of fact, she can take apart a car and put it back together in no time flat.
When I have to come into town I usually catch the bus or sometimes call a cab. But cabs are so expensive anymore.
I know, Unc, that you'll really like her, she's a very special person. But let me tell you a story about her.
Well...I hope that this doesn't offend you two or anything, but Traci used to be a man. When she was younger, she had realized her 'feminine' side, and liked boys more than girls.
She's had a kind of hard life, her family was very homophobic and couldn't understand why their son was into boys more than girls; she's shown me pictures of herself before and after, and I'll admit that Traci was a nice-lookin' guy...I think that his name was Ted before he (she) legally changed it to Traci Anne.
She eventually dropped the 'Anne' and just goes by Traci now.
She fought those feelings as a teenager--but decided, the heck with it, it was her life, and she was goin' to do what she wanted. You only come around once and you ought to have as much fun as you can...as long as it's legal.
"You can say that again," I said.
Ida went on, "At the moment she's plannin' on gettin' a sex change...she's already been takin' female hormones and silicone shots to where her boobs have increased in size, they're not as big as mine but they're a decent size, she didn't want great big boobs.
At any rate when she told her family that she was unhappy as a man, she preferred to be a woman and was intendin' on havin' a sex change, they took it very hard...and turned their backs on her.
Traci always has been a very sensitive person anyway, I could tell that when I'd first met her and she moved out...and away from the small town in southern Missouri where she was livin'.
As a matter of fact, she was scorned not only by her family, but by virtually everybody in that town, she moved to the Joplin area where she was eventually got a job workin' for an insurance company down there.
The company she worked for grew to the point where they built branch offices across the state line into Arkansas; she chose that one because she no longer wanted to live in Missouri.
She lived as a woman, in fact, for quite some time she did pretty good...until, one fateful day, she was discovered in the women's bathroom by one trouble-makin' person that she called 'Loudmouth Sue', this person spread the word that "a freak was workin' in their midst."
Word spread all over the company that Traci was really a man, and she was subject to ridicule; however, her bosses and several co-workers she had were sympathetic to her plight, as you know, companies are supposed to hire people regardless of their sexual gender, what Traci has done in the privacy of her own home wasn't nobody's fuckin' business but her own.
Needless to say, 'Loudmouth Sue' was reprimanded and eventually fired, Traci, on the other hand, was promoted to Sue's job, she now is a supervisor herself to where she would've been over Sue had Sue stayed."
"That's excellent news!" I exclaimed. "And no, it doesn't offend me in any way."
"Me neither," Jan added. "By the way, at my old location at college, we had several transgendered people--both male and female--that I, among several others, were very friendly with. They have rights too, just like the rest of us."
"You're damn right they have," I commented.
"I knew somebody in college that was very homophobic, I had a teacher, an older, lantern-jawed woman named Gwendolyn that talked about gays, lesbians and trangendered people somethin' awful.
When I'd last heard of her, she was a staunch follower of that stupid minister that goes around picketin'...what's his name, Unc?" Jan asked.
"You mean good ol' Fred?" I answered. "Nobody likes that damn fool."
