I can't even begin to imagine what it was like to be a crossdresser in decades past. Just as I began to explore it in my youth, the internet was pretty well established. The only hurdle for me was at this point in time the "family computer" was still a thing, no tablets/smartphones/everyone in the family has a laptop. So it wasn't like I could hop on a site like this whenever I wanted. I had to wait for the rare opportunity where for whatever reason the rest of the family was out of the house and I could browse a bunch of cd related sites.
Of course I was super scared about getting caught. I didn't know how tech-savvy my siblings were and if I had covered my digital tracks enough. So either no one ever found me out on the computer or if they did, they just kept it a secret.
Once I was in college, I had my own laptop computer which was great. But I lived in the dorms and had roommates so I still didn't really have a ton of privacy.
But besides just discovering other people who share this interest, I can't imagine trying to find fem things before the internet. I find very few things my style in stores that would fit me, and amazon has been my saving grace for clothes shoes and wigs.
I buy panties, bras, stockings/pantyhose and makeup in stores which I imagine in the past would definitely be not as unnoticed as today. Although I still get an occasional cashier ask me if what I'm buying is for me. But its not like the end of the world if that happens like she's going to tell the whole town.
So I really have a lot of sympathy for other crossdressers who have had it much harder than I did or even younger people who have so much available to them now.
