Granger 14
- This article is a Biography
- Chapter 14 - Operations
We had been getting on very well and made remarkable progress. Perhaps too quickly for some people. So it is not surprising we ran into a set back now and then. Now whether it was due to the early use of spoon busk corsets, or to the after effects from my daughter's birth, some years before, or maybe it was there long before, but Ethel began to complain about internal troubles, and a pain in her back, once a month.
Actually this had begun to give real trouble soon after she finished breast feeding, although she had some trouble before I knew her. When she visited the doctor, he naturally blamed it on to the corsets, as they always do, as it makes a good excuse to blame what they cannot explain otherwise. But as I said, she had had these pains to some extent since my daughter had been born, and even before I married her, I really think that the pregnancy had brought it to a head.
The result of an examination showed that her womb was not in the correct position but had become inverted. It would need an operation to put it right. She had to go to Addenbrooks Hospital, Cambridge to see a specialist. I hear that when she went in to be examined, she shook him completely. Naturally she had to strip off her clothes and corsets, but already her waist had become formed to a permanent wasp waist shape, which remained so even without corsets. In fact, by this time she was a slave to her corsets and could not bear to be without them for any length of time, for as she said, "Without them I feel as it I am falling apart and I miss their support."
So when he asked her to pull herself erect and breathe in and out, her shape was evident to his gaze. He said, "Good Heavens, woman! What have you done to yourself? I have not seen anything like it for many years now." Which was quite possible, as tight lacing had gone out of fashion for about 20 years or more, I suppose. Then as doctors will, he went off the deep end and told her that she must give up wearing them altogether, though he should have realised, that with the existing shape of her figure she was much too far along for that to be possible.
When I came home to Cambridge I found her wearing a short pair of loose fitting corsets she had purchased. I told her I did not care what the doctor had said, I could not put up with anything like that after we had been so happy. She admitted that these loose corsets felt terrible after what she had been wearing, and that her back ached even more than before. Eventually, with a sigh of relict, she donned the 16 inch corsets but we did leave the back open quite a way.
Meanwhile I ordered a new pair for Ethel to wear, which were 17 inches in the waist. They were again rather high on the top and lower at the bottom. These corsets also had an elastic underbelt to give support where she needed it, over the abdomen. I had these made of the same black broche material with cerise roses as were the last pair from Mme Lorette, for we had liked this material so much.
We had to wait about 3 months before they sent for her to go into Addenbrooks, for her operation. I was working, but I did have permission, when needed, to go to see her, but as Cambridge was my home my mother would look after her. She kissed me good bye, as she left on the bus on the Wednesday, with my daughter, who would stay with my family there. My mother would take Ethel into hospital next day and I would go over on the bus to see how the operation had gone with her. It was to be at 11 am on the Friday, so by the time the bus carried me to the hospital gates, where I alighted, it was 6 pm, and I rushed in to enquire about her and was straight way ushered up to the ward. This was ominous, and they soon told me that she had been sick, probably tearing out some stitches, so was bleeding internally. They wanted my permission to reopen her right away and put it right. So they fetched the specialist back again to do what was necessary that night, while they let me spend the long, long night in an armchair, on tenterhooks, waiting for news.
Early in the morning they could report that she was new sleeping peacefully and I did just get a peep at her. When I got home that morning my people, who had been expecting me, were worried as to where I had been. Next day when I went to visit her she was awake but obviously had had a rough time for she looked pretty bad. Within a week she was beginning to look better, and I had frequent trips back home to visit her especially when they let her go home to my parents home and I could once more sleep with her.
She was without corsets for over a month. We had also removed the large plugs from her ears and septum, but when she was ready and able to get up again we reinserted them, although we had to gradually restretch her ear piercings to take the large plugs, from ½ inch up to 3/8 inch (which was the size they were when she went in), but her septum was quite easy to replug as before. It was quite soon before we had them all replaced as before. Then when Ethel was up again we tried on the corsets, with the underbelt, as she said she still missed them and wanted them on again. So well had her body been trained in the previous 6 years that when we laced on the black broche 17 inch underbelt corsets there was no difficulty in getting them to meet again within about 6 weeks. We could have done it much faster, but we thought it better to take it easy after the operation and her previous pains. She was only too ready and willing, very pleased when they were back and closed, and she felt more at home in them than without. Nor did lacing it hurt her at all, or seem to do her any harm.
She was soon walking round as easily as before, I was glad to get her back home again with my daughter also after a time, I had been cooking, shopping and doing all the household chores on my own for some weeks. It had been quite a business doing the shopping, then rushing home, cooking a meal, two or three courses, and rushing back to work inside the lunch break of 1┬╛ hours. I got quite proficient at it and told Ethel if she came home I would continue to do all I could to help. In fact from that time on I have done the bulk of the shopping and saved money doing it. It was the washing up that got me down.
Before a year had passed, all the effects of the operation and her previous pains had passed away so the scar was nearly invisible. She was once again back into her 16 inch corsets that Mme Lorette had repaired and also reduced the waist back to its original size. Several more years went by, and she felt less and less of her operation and had no more trouble, even when reduced most severely, which showed me that the cause had not been with corseting at all.
Alas, our pleasant association with Mme Lorette was brought to a close. She wrote to say that she was giving up the business (probably due to lack of tight lacing customers), and she recommended us to try Overett instead. We were very sorry, for her corsets had been of excellent quality and cut, besides very reasonable in price. We really did not know where to go for the next pair, for she was now easy in her 16 inch so was ready for further reductions. Her next pair was urgently needed.
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I had already pierced my septum and could wear a inch thick ring through it with ease. I liked the heavy ring through it, swinging there, and when I had it in, Ethel would pull me to her when I pulled her nose ring so we came together, when she would raise my ring and kiss me on the lips while hers was pushed up on to her nose out of the way. While in bed, she would hold me, ring in her teeth, so that I could not get away. Sometimes, instead of the ring I put in an ivory spike about 2½ inches long, which pushed up my nostrils, and over this I could hook her ring, so we were locked together. If she had had a ½ inch perforation to her septum I could have made my ring go from my nose and then through her septum, so we would have been really locked by our noses.
However, what I wanted to do was to pierce my ears. I had made many temporary holes in various places, but none that were permanent. Then one day in London Life I read a letter which showed me the way so I went ahead with it.. First of all I took a stout needle, broke about ½ inch from the pointed end, heated it and then hammered it while red hot, several times, until I had spread the needle into a flat thin part, which I then filed carefully into an arrow head shape, which I then rehardened, sharpened to a pair of keen cutting edges on the pointed end of the arrow head. It would now cut as it pierced a thin narrow slit instead of a round hole and would pierce much easier in consequence. I did discover however that it had a disadvantage, for while it cut a slice it also severed more blood vessels, so it now bled freely, much more than with the ordinary piercer. I tried it out and although it went through the ear with case into the cork, it hurt more and the blood poured out of the small wound so that I had to clip a pad of cotton wool on for some time until the blood clotted to stop the flow.
I was prepared for this now. The rest of the operation, however, was that the needle was to carry a length of thread which must be dipped or soaked in a strong solution of silver nitrate, which would cauterise the hole, to promote healing and would also staunch the bleeding. So I prepared one ear lobe for the job to be done, and I made up my mind to do one ear at a time so that there would be less likelihood of any notice being taken, or what I was doing to myself.
I selected the spot in the centre of the lobe, where it was thinner. The arrowhead needle was ready, threaded with a length of embroidery cotton and this was threaded with a length of embroidery cotton, already dipped in the silver nitrate solution with the surplus drained off. I put the needle point to my car lobe, pressed it, felt a searing pain in my ear lobe, felt the needle point out at the back, and then pulled it quickly through feeling the blood beginning to drip from my ear onto the cotton wool placed there to receive it. Pulling on the needle I felt the resistance as the thread began to enter, then a wicked burning sensation in my ear lobe as the silver nitrate burned and cauterised, staunching the blood flow successfully. I pulled the thread through until it came up to a knot in the thread, leaving a tail dangling from it, which I pruned by clipping off the excess, close to the knot. The long tail at the back was also clipped away leaving about inch projecting, and so a tiny piece of thread was left in the piercing to remain there. If what the writer had said was true, then the silver nitrated thread would produce a permanent piercing. In fact they had said that the silver nitrate in the wound would be enough alone but I left the thread through the wound to make certain.
What I had forgotten was the fact that silver nitrate in contact with organic material would darken like a photograph on exposure to the light. So in the daylight I found the knot turned black and also the piercing, and everywhere I had touched with the nitrated thread. In a couple of days I noticed the piercing had swelled up so when I squeezed it a little puss came out and the knotted thread piece popped out like a pip from an orange. I thought that I had failed, but there was a clear hole to be seen, and I got another needle, this time without the arrow headed point, but one I had taken the point off and made a deliberately blunt point. With another piece of knotted thread, dipped in nitrate, this time I had dipped it and dried it so it would not mark every where I put it through the piercing, which it followed easily, and again feeling it burn, but not so much. I clipped it off as before and left it there, and it settled down so that at the end of the week I could pull it out. The thread was now dry, without puss and there was a neat round or rather long hole, through which I could put any earring wire I wished. I had pierced one ear and it has remained there ever since. The other remained to be done, but this time instead of the arrow headed needle I used one with the point broken off and the end sharpened on both sides to give a tiny chisel-like tool. This did not bleed so much, and did not make a slit, which later I found tended to tear longer with heavy weights, but the round holes do not do so.
From that time I had both ears pierced and I could experience the thrill of putting heavy pendants through my ears when I wanted to do so. Later I enlarged these piercings gradually with tapering spears until one day I could put ½ inch rings through, once in fact I got them so big that 5/16 inch rings went through. When I left them alone I found the holes would rapidly close up again, but never to the really invisible size. I could always put the silver 5/32 inch rings through, and with a little stretching get the ½ inch ones in again. I did several other piercings in my ears in various places as well as trying on my nostrils, to eventually make permanent holes there too, and I stretched my septum even bigger than it was at that time. I even made a try on my breast nipples which I found extremely reactive and painful, also for some reason the piercings pulled right through at the tips as I had not done them down deeply enough.
My sister in law I discovered was interested in having her cars pierced and asked if I could do it for her. She had the sort of face that earrings would improve, and she was fed up with screw on ones. So I took her into the bathroom, bathed her lobes, which were well formed, gave her ears a spray with ethyl chloride to numb them. Then I took the chisel-pointed needle and a nitrated thread through. She squealed a bit when it burned her, but I left the thread in place for a time, while I did the other ear. Pulling the thread right through I inserted the thick silver wire of an earring, on which was a small pearl drop, through the blackened wound, clipped it up, then went on to the other ear which was soon likewise decorated. She said they had not hurt much, nor did they bleed at all. When she looked at herself in the mirror she said they suited her. My brother did not agree and made her take them out after a week.
At this point I may indulge myself in another little personal reminiscence. It was while Ethel was away in hospital or at my home in Cambridge and I had time on my hands. I had as have said already I had got my ears pierced and my septum also, so I had made a pair of heavy drop earrings turned out of solid brass, with a rounded stud above, carrying the wire hook for the ears. Those I had silver plated to look quite attractive. These heavy weights from my ears swung nicely when inserted therein.
I had some brochures from one of the firms advertising high heeled boots and boots too. At that time I was suffering from foot troubles. Reading that high heels were a cure for flat feet, I had. long ago decided to buy a pair to try out. My first pair was a pair of black court suede shoes with 3½ inch heels, sized 8, into which I could just squeeze my feet, and wearing these did ease the pain in my feet, and I could walk in them with ease. I had also purchased a pair of long black elbow length kid gloves sized 7 which I could wear. As I was now a regular corset wearer, [Will has missed out some words here] made on the old black sateen diagonal seam lines; my usual pair for work had been for a long time about 5 inches above the waist and short on the hips with a waist of about 26 inches but when I had got used to these I got a much longer and more heavily boned pair about 5 inches above the waist line and quite 1ong over the hips, which I found gave wonderful support to my back but were difficult to work in. Then I got a really severely boned pair, longer in every way about 6 inches above the waist and 25 inches waist. These were extremely difficult to work in as I could hardly bend my body. In addition I had that very long corset suit which went from my shoulder to half way down my legs, cut on the cross over reducing model. All were in black sateen, lined with coutil.
I could new send for what I liked so I ordered some underwear, stockings and a black velvet dress to fit me. All these were at that time quite cheap. So I now had a complete outfit of feminine apparel and could experiment as I wished. As I was on my own, I wrote to one of the high heel firms of which there were several besides the Regent Shoe Stores. I asked them to sand me a pair of black court shoes with 4½ inch heels and. also some laced boots to the knees, with heels of 5½ and 6 inches to try on approval. When they arrived there was a lovely pair of court shoes with 4½ inch heels of nice black calf, a bit larger than my old ones sized 8½. I had decided to sell the first pair anyway if I kept these beauties.
I squeezed my foot into them and they fitted me like a glove, and I found I could stand arid walk in them fairly well. Then I tried my feet into the boots. First the 5½ inch pair, after which I tried to stand up. I was on tip-toe and could only balance with difficulty. They were thrilling to stand in and I wobbled around in them, although I had only laced them, up here and there.
The 5½ inch heels were a new experience to me, but I was determined to try out the 6 inch heeled beauties. I had already put on a pair of black silk stockings and attached them to my corset suspenders, and I was wearing a pair of 1ace trimmed open legged black knickers in readiness. Now I inserted my feet, one by one into the six inch heeled boots, and forced my feet home, feeling the arched curve of the undersole forcing my feet into its curved shape. The heels felt terrifically high and the height forced my toes home with the pressure as I attempted to stand erect. It was difficult to do so without bending my knees forward and hold on to the edge of the door for support.
After a few minutes to get used to them I started the long job of lacing them from top to bottom. They came up to my knees, with yards of lacing to be threaded through, I began the task, lacing in from side to side until I was half way up to the top. Then I started to lace up the other side to the same height. Now I began to pull the laces of the first one up as tightly as possible, forcing my foot and ankle into position, than up the leg I went, threading the laces through until I came to the top, where I tied the lace tightly. I could now admire my beautifully shod foot and leg in its gleaming black shiny leather, terminating in that towering slender six inch heel. Now back to the second one and after pulling and tugging I got this one also pulled tight and tied up. They were on, and I stood up or tried to for the angle of my feet was so acute that I nearly fell over grabbed the door for support. But 1 tried again and pulled my knees back as far as I could to arch the feet to the heels. To walk now was the problem so I really tottered helplessly a few steps in a painful manner, yet it was a great experience to feel those heels beneath my feet.
However I had only just begun, for the next item was the corset suit. Removing my old corsets, I slipped my arm through the armholes. It was well unlaced for it had a 25 inch waist. It was now hanging from my shoulders. There was an elastic underbelt which I now hooked up. With some difficulty I clasped the long busk fastening together, attached the three pairs of suspenders, tightened them to torsion my hose, and pulled up the straps on my shoulders. There were three loops of lacing, so the lacing could be done in three places. I laced up the lacing below the busks tightly and also. Then the lacing above was put through but before I pulled it tight I stuffed the bust with old socks to give me a proper figure, after which I pulled this in tightly too.
Then came the problem of the back lacing. There was a loop over the hips, one loop at the waistband the third under the shoulder blades. I pulled in the bottom then the top loops and lastly the waist. They were still open about two inches. So back again. First the bottom, then the top, and another good pull in at the waist. The gap was smaller. Now to the last and final effort. The lower part was closed from the bottom to the hips. I tried to walk around to ease the pressure, and found that I now had more control over the high heels. The pressure had been brought to the waist. Then the upper part was pulled in until I could see in the mirror that it was closed. I tied this with some difficulty and the hips too were tied. Now came the waist section. I put the loops of the laces over the bed knob and walked away squeezing in my sides as I did so, until I could feel the edges had met from top to bottom. Quickly I tied the laces and surveyed my figure. Finally I tightened up the arm straps and the lacing above and below the busks. I was in, but not finished. I was fainting with ecstasy and tightness.
Now I took the long stiff pair, unlaced them a little put them over the others clasped the busks, fitted the suspenders and again laced them tightly. Over these I now put the shorter pair of corsets, again adjusted the suspenders and laced in the back. I was now as rigid as a board. Over every thing I now put on the short working pair and when these were laced in I could not press in my waist at all for it was surrounded by so many stiff steels, nor could I bend at all.
All this time I was getting used to my 6 inch heels and boots but my feet were killing me, but I could not get down to take them off if I wished. It was difficult to reach down to get up my knickers but I managed it. A petticoat was pulled over my head. It too was black silk and finally the dress which fitted very well.
It had a knee length narrow skirt which confined me some more. What I wanted but had not got was a long wig, but they were not then cheap, but I added bracelets and two necklaces, then the earrings through my pierced ears and the ring through my septum. Heavily powdered and a thick cupids bow of vivid lipstick, eye shadow and liners were put on. Then the final touch my hands wore squeezed into those delightful long black kid gloves. These were buttoned up and I was a finished article.
It was now a great thrill to experience the sensations of a tightly corseted, and how well corseted I was, high heeled booted female. I could not bend at all and I tottered on those towering heels with great difficulty and yet it was delightful to feel my waist, gripped in that iron girdle of corsets, with my feet tilted on tip toe, the swinging from my lobes of the heavy pendants and the big ring through my nose, and the feel of my tightly gloved hands stroking myself. Even the taste of the lipstick had its attraction. To essay to walk down and then up the stairs was an effort but after a time I could accomplish it and walk around with the simpering gait of the tightly laced female.
It was an experiment that I was not able to repeat for although I kept the high heeled shoes and could walk in them with ease after a time (and they did improve my foot troubles), I had reluctantly to return those lovely boots, for they were too expensive to keep. I would have loved to have been able to afford a pair for Ethel and a buttoned pair up to her thighs, with 5½ heels. She could have worn them. I must say I sighed with relief when I eventually removed the torturing corsets and the boots too. But the experience had been worth while.
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