I’m sitting in my chair on a Saturday afternoon, waiting for trains to pass through Ashland, Whereas the trains pass in and out of the camera’s eye somewhat infrequently, the gender-ambiguous Ashland Bicycle Crossdresser (ABC) regularly moves in and out of the camera’s view.

Ze (is that right?) is what we would once have called a “character“. Ze has a unique style of dressing, wearing tops of various pastels, today pale pink, a micro-miniskirt, pantyhose and a very low-heeled strappy sandal with a bit of a heel. ABC is wearing a helmet, a major concession to safety.

ABC may very well be happier than I am. ABC’s wife is really OK with their lifestyle choice, a newspaper article once revealed.  ABC does get plenty of exercise, we can safely say. Ze is living out hir dream.

Ashland has always had an eccentric or two. There was a chap who raised game cocks, for, uh, cock fighting. The legality of cock fighting once existed in ambiguity and still may questionable here in Virginia. Betting on an encounter between two roosters is illegal, but if two roosters find themselves in a cockpit, wearing sharpened spurs and a bit of a donnybrook ensues, that can’t be helped. It’s only natural that such testosterone-fuelled shenanigans take place. Is it surprising that the legal minds who made this distinction around cock fighting also came up with Jim Crow segregation? We learn not to be surprised at anything around here,