Looking Back:
Lesbian Life in Springfield, IL in the 1920s and 1930s
By Ruth Ellis
See that was sort of a hushed thing. Hushed. Hushed. Everything was sort of a secret like. I didn't know nothing about lesbians.
What I use to try to do was to get around some sportin' women (prostitutes). I didn't know much about sex, but I knew they knew everything about sex. But they wouldn't say anything about women. I'd ask them and they'd just grin at me.
There would be some houses maybe you could go to and just hang around. There use to be a house about a block away from where I lived. It was just an ordinary place where you could sit around and talk and drink. That's all we did, sit around and talk. My sister-in-law didn't like for me to go down there because she was a lesbian.
Well, this woman, she had a girlfriend. Then her girlfriend wanted me. (Ruth giggles.) So the girlfriend went with me for awhile. We didn't go steady.
I didn't have any real girlfriends, you know. I'd have one night affairs, that's about all. I'd see somebody I like. And if they liked me, well that was it.They would come spend the night. Or, I'd go spend the night with them. I don't know why I didn't have a girlfriend. I don't know. [>>continued]
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