The Genesis of Scratch!

This little amusement created itself while we were away for a few days in East Anglia. The hotel had been booked before Her Majesty died, which meant that we ended up with two days (Sunday and the Monday of the funeral) when almost nothing was open. Stuck in a hotel room with only sandwiches bought the previous day and kept chilled in the room mini-bar, the idea slowly matured...

This blog shows that anything from one's past (or present!) could be useable in a story. The various bits and pieces don't have to belong together at all. It all depends on the imagination of your muse.

1. I do, at the moment, have some kind of dermatitis on both arms, which is the whole reason for the machinations in the story. It decided to flare up when we went away. However, while Dennis's ailment is unspecified, mine is probably due to an infection picked up from a resident hedgehog we have been feeding. I had to go into Boots in Ipswich to get some emergency ointment.

And no, I'm not allergic to any materials that I know of.

2. The unusual holiday arrangements reflect those of my childhood. We lived on the South Coast near the seaside, the beach was about a 25-minute walk from where we lived. We did not live in Shoreham and our relatives did not live near Barnsley.

My Uncle, in fact, worked at the steel plant in Scunthorpe and we went there each year for our summer holidays. This weird arrangement caused much amusement at school, as you might imagine. The journey from the South Coast took 8-10 hours by train, including a trek across London.

Of course, that was then and this is now. Gayle would drive north with her family in her car and return the same way.

The first few years my relatives had a terraced Victorian house near the works and we were woken up at 06:30 each morning by the steam locomotives loose-shunting miles of ore and coal wagons. Fun times! Then they moved to the other side of town, to a modern semi-detached which approximates the one in the story.

3. You'll notice that Dennis's father gets only a brief reference. He's not important to the story but could be supposed to be doing something important, like traffic police, medical staff, customs officer or something like that, which would prevent him joining the family on that occasion.

4. There were four youngsters involved as in the story, myself, a sister and two female cousins. Our ages differed by two years each but the particular combination differs from that in the story. There was only one occasion when shenanigans happened, that involved a gymslip, enough said.

5. A version of the Regency gown actually exists. A few years ago a village in our county decided to celebrate the 200th centenary of their sheep fair with costumes of the period. As my better half became involved I sourced some patterns and made a gown for her. It was white, not pink, and the trim was gold. Yes, I tried it on, yes, it fitted, and yes, it was a pig to get off again. I have difficulty removing anything with very short sleeves. I also made the chemise, chemisette and short stays but in the end it was warm enough that only the chemise was worn at the fair. She went with a modern strapless bra to support the necessary.

There was a bonnet but it was nothing like that described in the story, being instead of straw. Nor were there any long gloves. The patterns I used came from janeausten.co.uk, specifically this dress pattern and this underthings pattern. I would point out that these seem to be slightly different from the versions I received, time does pass.

6. I did, in fact, have an aversion to certain clothing when I was young. I didn't recognise that I was doing so until I was well into my teens. In my case it was shiny materials and anything white. I managed not to wear anything white except underpants from the ages of 10 until I left home at 18. I suspect it was the possibility that I might have showed an unusual reaction to such materials, so I sought to avoid them.

So this lot mashed together in my addled brain and from it a slim tale emerged. The very slight twist is, of course, that the boy in the gown isn't the transgender one, it might be one of the girl cousins instead.

I trust that you enjoyed it.