Boys Will Be Girls – Long Ago
The fact that the men of my family like to dress –
differently – and what happens when they dress that way goes back for
generations – literally, generations, because the earliest story that I head is
that of my grandfather and my Great Uncle Peter – the man I am named after.
The way he told me the story, it was the mid-fifties,
and he was about ten years old while Peter was 13. They were visiting his cousin – and when they
found some of her clothes, she dared them to put them on.
Well, they loved a dare, so they did just that –
Grandfather put on a short sleeved white blouse under a black pinafore dress,
which had a white mountain pattern band just above the skirt, white socks and
black sandals. As for Great Uncle Peter,
he was wearing a light grey dress with elbow length sleeves, a wide skirt and
black slippers.
Well, their cousin clapped her hands with glee – and
that was when the men came in, wearing dark clothing and eye masks, and
carrying a large bag and guns. Turns out
they had surprised her mother and were robbing the house – and now they had “to
be kept very quiet” as he put it.
One of the men made them all sit on the bed, and put their
hands together in prayer, while another one produced a large ball of twine and
a knife. With the gun pointed at them,
they had to let him tie the twine round their wrists, and then take it down and
tie it round their ankles, before it was cut off and he moved on to the next of
them. The man then looked in a drawer
and stuffed a pair of booby socks into each of their mouths, before telling
them not to move.
They left them there, all three of them twisting
round, but Grandfather confessed that the experience made him really excited –
and Great Uncle Peter as well. It was
added to by watching their cousin – she had on a tight white sweater and a
poodle skirt, and the way she moved made them feel strange as well.
Not that they could say anything – the socks kept them
quiet until their uncle came home and found them and her mother. But two things were clear to both of them
after that.
They liked wearing woman’s clothing.
And they liked being tied up and gagged in those
clothes.
At that time, it wasn’t something you admitted in
public, so it was their secret – but when Grandfather met and married
Grandmother, she understood and accepted that side of him.
The other side however – well, some years later my
father was ten years old, and had discovered he liked to wear girl’s clothes as
well. Grandfather and Grandmother knew
and accepted it so long as it was at home – and then something happened.
Grandfather was at work, and Grandmother was at home
with Dad. They had been shopping, so
Grandmother was wearing a brown silk blouse, with elbow length sleeves and a
knee length skirt, and brown stilettos.
Dad asked if he could change, so she allowed him to put on some
different clothes – I have a picture of them, Dad wearing a white dress with
puffed sleeves and a matching headband, as well as white slippers.
What they had not expected was the man who knocked on
the door – he was smartly dressed and asked if Grandmother would be interested
in seeing the samples he had. She asked
what samples – and then he produced a gun and made her walk back into the
house, before he saw Dad.
He smiled, and made them walk into the front room,
before sitting on the old couch they had with their hands on their heads. Opening his case, he took out some lengths of
cord, and made Dad put his hands behind his back before he tied his wrists
together.
Grandmother could only watch as the man then used more
cord to tie Dad’s ankles tightly together, and then he produced a white chiffon
scarf, rolled it into a band and used it as a cleave gag, pulling it between
Dad’s lips and then tying it round his head.
Dad had never had this done to him – and he could see Grandmother
watching him – but a she described it, it made him feel like Grandfather did
when this was done to him. Different,
and excited.
He had to watch as the man-made Grandmother take off
her gold watch, her pearl earrings and her rings, and then place them in a
small bag. He then made her put her
hands behind her back, Dad watching as he used cords to bind her wrists and
ankles in the same way as his. He then
used a second scarf to gag her as well, the thin chiffon pulling back the
corners of her mouth, before he told them to sit still while he looked round.
Apparently, Dad watched Grandmother try to get free,
but then she looked at him, and he said there was a strange look in her
eyes. She mumbled something – and he
nodded. Somehow, he knew she was getting
just as excited as he was.
The man left them like that until Dad came back with
my aunt Mary, who is a couple of years younger than Dad. She just stared at them as he freed them –
and then she asked Dad what it was like.
He told her – and she said that sounded exciting as well.
They had a long family talk after that, and that ended
up with both Grandfather and Grandmother often playing games when Dad and Aunt
Mary were taken captive – in matching outfits.
The first time they were wearing Aunt Mary’s school
uniform – a blue pinafore style sleeveless dress with a flared knee length
skirt, over a long-sleeved white blouse, and a red scarf round their
necks. Dark grey knee length socks and
brown Mary Jane style shoes completed the ensemble.
Grandfather had set two dining chairs in the center of
the room and told them both to have a seat.
When they did so, they saw on the table a variety of lengths of ropes –
Grandfather said he wanted them to feel really helpless, so he asked Aunt Mary
to lean forward, and put her arms between the slats in the chair back. When she did so, he took one of the lengths
of rope and bound her wrists together, then tied them to the back of the chair.
He did the same thing to Dad as they looked at each
other, and then used more rope to tie their waists to the chair back. They both giggled as he took more of the
rope, and then used it to bind their ankles together – taking the rope between
their legs as well, to make it tighter.
He then made sure their ankles were secured to the
spar at the front of the chair, so they really could not move much – and then
he wound rope round their lap and the chair seat to make it even more
difficult.
He then took the red scarf off from round Dad’s neck,
and used that as a cleave gag, the rolled-up material pressing his tongue down
and keeping him quiet. Dad could feel it
getting wet as he gagged Aunt Mary in the same way, and then said they would be
set free in an hour.
Well, Dad said he really tried to get free, twisting
round as the scarf got wetter and wetter in his mouth – but then he was aware
of something else happening with him. He
stopped, and he said Aunt Mary just looked at him and nodded. He could do nothing to stop what his body was
doing – but it just made it even more exciting for him.
He never said if Aunt Mary had anything happen to her,
and they certainly never said anything to me or my brother over than they were
freed, and he had to run somewhere…
Now, Great Uncle Peter also had two children, Uncle
George and Aunt Joanna. All four of them
were about the same age, but Uncle George, like Dad and his father, also liked
to dress up. Aunt Mary told me of one
afternoon eh spent at their house – Dad was at a Scout camp – and what
happened.
Aunt Mary was wearing a light blue summer dress with
capped sleeves, knee length white socks and white sandals, and had a white
scarf tied in her long hair as bow. When
she got to their house, Aunt Joanna was wearing a white dress with short,
puffed sleeves, and a bow at the neckline.
She was also wearing knee length white socks, white sandals, and a white
bow in her curly blonde hair.
As for Uncle George – well, Great Uncle Peter had been
at work, and he was wearing a green sleeveless dress with a large collar that
had white daisies on it. White knee
length socks? Check. White bow in his blonde hair? Check.
He was also wearing sandals – tan ones in his case.
So, they were playing in the front room, when Great
Uncle Peter came in and asked if they wanted to play a game of hostages. All three of them nodded, so he made them sit
on the floor in a circle, back-to-back, and then like their arms and put their
hands together in prayer.
Aunt Mary watched a she started with Uncle
George. He smiled as he knelt down and
used one end of a length of rope to tie his son’s wrists together in front of
him. He then used more rope to tie his ankles
together, and his legs below his knees, before he used one more length to tie
his wrists to his ankles.
Left like that, Uncle George could not move his arms
from his sister and Aunt Mary – so as Great Uncle Peter secured her, she was
getting quietly excited as well. She and
Uncle George watched as Aunt Joanna was secured – and then they saw in Great
Uncle Peter’s hand a roll of brown sticking plaster.
Up until then, they had always been gagged if they
played with scarves, either over their mouths or between their lips. So as she watched him tear a strip of the
brown fabric free, and press it down over Uncle George’s lips, she wondered how
it would feel.
How it felt was something tugging on the skin round her
mouth, but she really could not do more than make grunting noise – and that
just seemed to add to her excitement.
Aunt Joanna also had some plaster pressed down over her mouth, and then
Great Uncle Peter put the radio on so they could listen to Junior Choice – a
program they liked to listen to then.
As Aunt Mary described it, they wriggled and mumbled,
but could not get free at all – and that gave her a really warm and tingly
feeling to be like that. She told Grandfather
about it later – and the next time she and Dad played, they had sticking plaster
over their mouths as well…
Remember I said that Grandfather and Grandmother were
lucky they both agreed on what to do with Dad?
Well, Dad said he got really lucky when he met Mum and they fell in
love. You see, it turns out she had a
similar thing happen with her brother, my Uncle John.
Like I said at the start, it runs in our family. She once told me of how she and Uncle John
had been to a wedding – and he wanted to wear the same clothes as her afterwards. So when they got home, she stayed in her
dress – this was the mid-eighties, and she was fourteen, so she was wearing a pink
dress with puffed sleeves that came halfway down to her elbows, and a skirt
that came to just above her knees. White
tights, and white sandals along with a white hairband completed the outfit.
Uncle John had come back wearing a dark blue suit,
white shirt, blue tie and black shoes – but Mum told me how her nine-year-old
brother than came down in the same dress, tights and shoes.
Her mum and dad just shook their heads as they went
into the front room – before her father came in, and asked if the two
princesses wanted to be Damsels in Distress?
Mum said she looked at Uncle John, and he grinned and nodded – so their
father went out and came back with a roll of white tape. Why white tape? To match their outfits…
He started with Mum – taking her hands behind her back
and taping her wrists together, then wrapping the tape round her body so she
could not move her arms. He did the same
to Uncle John, before they both carefully sit down, and he taped their ankles
and their legs together.
They wriggled round, before he pressed lengths of the
white tape down over their mouths. Mum
said she found it a nice feeling – and Uncle John seemed to enjoy it as well, as
he wriggled round and smiled under the tape.
They were like that until teatime – and then he
released their hands and arms but made them jump to the table and taped them to
the chairs before removing their gags.
He also taped them up for bed – but that apparently was another story…
So yes, the men in our family dressing up as girls is
a long tradition – one Eric and I have taken on. I’m twelve, and Eric is eleven, but with Mum
and Dad’s support we have dressed as girls for some time – but today,
Grandfather and Grandmother are visiting, and we are going to play a very
special family game.
I have chosen the sort of outfit Grandfather would
have worn – a sleeveless grey dress with pink dots, and a pink sash round my
waist. The skirt has two tiers, and I
have on white bobby socks and pink sandals, as well as a set of beads round my
neck.
As I look round, Grandfather comes in and asks if I am
ready to begin. I nod, and he tells me
to stand with my hands behind my back as he puts some white ropes on the
bed. It’s not the first time I have been
tied up, so I let him use some of the rope to tie my wrists together behind my
back – and then he wraps a longer length round my body, forcing my arms against
my sides as the two bands go round my stomach and my upper arms.
It feels really snug, as he smiles and tied the rope
off, and then opens the door to let Eric come in. He’s also wearing a sleeveless dress, his one
white with a blue floral pattern, as well as the same sort of beads, socks and sandals
– but he also has his wrists tied together behind his back, and two bands of
rope round his upper body.
He asks me if I like this as well, and I nod as
Grandfather tells us both to follow him down to the main room. He looks really smart, in his cream twin set
and knee length grey skirt, his heels sinking into the carpet as we walk down.
When we go into the main room, he tells us both to sit
on the couch, and uses more rope to secure our ankles together, as well as our
legs below our knees. So we are tied up,
and it feels so nice to be two damsels in distress – which is when Grandmother
comes in with Mum and Dad, wearing a black blouse and pants.
That was Grandmother – Mum is wearing a black evening
dress, tights and black heels, but she also had her hands tied behind her back,
and the bands of rope around her arms and upper body – and she looks a bit
different like that. What she also has
is a black scarf pulled between her lips – it looks like a knot has been tied
in it and put in her mouth before it was tied round her head.
She says “Hhffhnfhnbhs,” and we both nod – then look
at Dad as he comes in. He looks amazing
– his dress is cream silk, with a red rose floral print on it, as well as
silver heels – but he’s also tightly tied up with his hands and arms, and he
has a knotted white scarf pulled between his lips and tied round his head.
We watch as they are helped to lie face down on the
floor, while Grandfather used rope to secure their ankles and legs, and then
pulling their ankles back and tying them to the ropes at their backs. They both roll over and look at us, as Mum
says “Whntthbhlhkhhs?”
As Eric and I look at each other, we both nod – and
then open our mouths so that our Grandmother can gag is in the same way –
rolled up white scarfs with a knot tied in the middle that sits on my tongue,
and the band tied tightly round my head.
We were then both helped to lei next to our parents,
and our ankles taken back and tied to the ropes round our chests. That wonderful safe feeling is getting
stronger in me – and as we look at each other, we all have the same thought, I
think.
We are so lucky to be a family who can do this…
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