many aeons ago, before the dawn of time....
...or maybe a few years later, an Avon Lady came knocking on our front door. A kindly neighbour had taken it upon herself to inform this purveyor of paints and perfumes that there were a couple of teenaged girls living in our house. I wasn't quite teenaged yet, being only twelve, but still old enough to be interested in paints and perfumes, according to the Avon Lady. It was a Sunday, so Dad was home and let her in. She laid out her kit on the kitchen table and convinced us to let her paint our nails. Our short, broken, not-so-pretty nails. My sister agreed to having her face painted, but I refused. I didn't like the feel of powders and lipsticks then, and I still don't now. Eyeshadow was completely out of the question as far as I was concerned, but my sister, J, seemed to enjoy having her eyelids coloured in and her lashes touched with black. My Dad was pleased that someone had brought "womanly" things into the house and ordered a few things for ea...