Once again, I have been fooled by The Haircut.
Virtually every girl I know saws off her hair at about 11 or 12. Someone please tell me why. Is it a secret feminine ritual, some pretext for entry into the Bacchanal order?
It can be disconcerting, even cause some identity problems, since at that age, it's not easy to tell the difference, under the normal circumstances of a normal non-sicko or pediatrician type-person, of boy from girl in any other way.
I had to interview a group of kids for a newspaper article a while ago, and thought that I would dignify them by addressing each as sir or ma'am. Well-behaved children deserve adult respect, that's my belief.
Well, one short-haired sir-so-called, very indignantly informed me that she was a girl, not a boy. Oops. I felt guilty for quite some time. After all, it cut me to the quick in my early, high-pitched teen years when callers to my home thought that I was a girl, not the suave young dude I imagined myself to be.
Today I had another get-together with a bunch of kids, and I was quite surprised to learn that the young fellow at table such and such was actually, um, a fellowette, as revealed when the person in charge called out her name. And when I heard that name, I realized that it was the same young lady whom I had met a few years ago with long, strawberry blonde locks, now shorn quite short. Yep, same facial structure, same kid. Just a foot taller or so and with very little hair.
Curious and curiouser.
