In fourth grade one day, I and another girl (remember, this was when people still thought I was a boy) were sitting next to each other while most of the other students were doing something else, and we had nothing interesting to do. Now the desks we used had wooden tops and at the top edge there was a little trough where you could lay a pencil without it rolling away. I watched in fascination as she got out a bottle of Elmer’s Glue and poured a bit into the trough. She let it air dry until it was just barely tacky still, then she carefully pried up the glue, now molded into a thin, elongated shape, and she pressed the still barely wet end of it onto one of her fingernails. Instant long fingernail! She then proceded to make “long fingernails” for all of her fingers.

Now that got me excited, so I eagerly got out my own bottle of Elmer’s Glue and started doing the same thing. It was the first time I ever “did my nails” and she helped me try to get it right, though sadly my efforts were not as practiced as hers and my “fingernails” didn’t stay on very long. Nonetheless it was a really happy moment for me and is one of the few memories I strongly remember from my childhood.

I was 9 years old at the time (almost 10) and my real gender was starting to burst forth even without me consciously understanding what was going on.