(aka Bike) Part 1968 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad
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I had Meems behind me puffing away like an old steam engine and two in front of me who’d apparently disappeared. I know that physics suggests that things can’t simply disappear, something has to happen to cause change, but looking ahead I couldn’t see either of them. I had to keep Meems with me or I’d have to go home and tell everyone that it would be quieter in future because I’d lost three of the girls. The downside of progressing at Meem’s speed was it was likely to be Christmas again before we caught up with the missing miscreants.
We rounded a corner and they came plying up behind us, giggling. They must have hidden as we came past and come up behind us. I stopped and read the riot act. Trish was not overly impressed until I explained in words of one syllable why I was worried. Then she apologised and burst into tears. I told her to stop before she rusted her bike, which made her laugh and order was restored.
About fifteen minutes later and perhaps a mile and a half further on, I decided they looked tired and we turned round and cycled back home. Just as we were putting the bikes away, Trish asked, “While Danny’s away, can we go out on the bikes again?”
“Danny–away?” I queried, I’d obviously forgotten something.
“Yes, he’s going to the battlefields–you’d forgotten, silly Mummy.”
“When?” I signed the form and gave him a cheque–why had I forgotten, or perhaps, how had I forgotten?
“Next week.”
“Thanks for reminding me.” I locked up the bike shed and dashed into the house. “Where’s Danny?” I asked Jacquie and Stella. They both shrugged. I dashed up the stairs to his room, he was playing on his computer and nearly dropped it off his lap when I burst into his room.
“Wow, Mum, don’t you ever knock–I could have been sitting here naked.”
“Never mind your inadequacies now, when are you going away?”
“Friday, why?”
“I need a list of all the stuff you want to take–clothes I mean.”
“But it’s only Saturday.”
“Danny, if I need to wash, dry and iron stuff, I’m going to need a few days. Remind me how long is this trip?”
“Four days including the going and coming back.”
“Okay, so you’ll need some stuff for walking about, something tidier in case you go to a restaurant, jammies, undies and socks. Which case are you taking?”
“Thought I’d take my sports bag.”
“Is is big enough?”
“I dunno, do I?”
“Well go and get it and let me see.”
“Jeez,” he said, rolling his eyes as he got up off his bed.
“You could always stay home instead.”
“No way,” he went to the fitted wardrobe/cupboard in his bedroom, poked about for a moment and brought out his bag. I opened it and dropped his dirty football kit on the floor.
“You can take that down to the washing machine or it won’t get done.” I tipped up the bag and out fell two magazines, Nuts and FHM both had pictures of women with large exposed breasts on them. “I hope you didn’t buy these?”
“Um no, they belong to a friend.”
“Well you’d better put them with the others,” I said and he went crimson and his mouth moved but no words came out. “Go on, under your shoe boxes.”
“Muuuum, that’s private.”
“If you’re going to keep a stash of dirty mags, be a bit more inventive in their hiding place, eh? If the girls get to see them, I’ll be very cross.”
“You mean you’re not cross already?”
“Danny, I know what boys get up to–usually page three. Yes, I’m disappointed in you for buying them–never mind the friend bit–but I’m also disappointed in these girls for selling their bodies like meat. Plus half of them have either been photoshopped or they are deformed–normal women aren’t like that are they? Orange skin, cleavages down to their knees and eyelashes long enough to sweep the floor, plus half their hair is artificial.”
“Yeah but I like ’em.”
“I’m sure you do, but these girls are trading on their sexuality.”
“So?”
“Son, it’s not nice. Women are people, not sex objects.”
“Yeah?”
“This sort of smutty magazine tends to suggest women are only good for sex.”
“Yeah, but that’s stupid.”
“But that’s what they say and to prove it they’re selling you a hard-on for your left hand to play with.”
He went a deeper shade of red.
“They agreed to do it.”
“I’m sure they did, and were probably well paid.”
“So?”
“You can’t sell people like baked beans.”
“What like human beans?” he joked.
“Danny, this is serious. The exploitation of women is serious. The amount of sexual assaults on young women is rising, in India it’s appalling. In this country it’s bad enough, but as long as magazines like this are about, men will see women as there just for their titillation.” The last word made him smirk–okay it wasn’t the best one to use.
He stood there with a smirk on his face. It was a waste of time and breath. “How would you feel if Julie or Sammi posed for this sort of stuff?”
“Oh yeah,” he almost gasped.
I obviously asked the wrong question. “Would you really want them exposed for all and sundry to see?”
“Dunno, never thought about it.”
“Well I’m asking you to think about it. How would you like it if pictures of me appeared in there–would you like your mates to be able to see my tits?”
“Uh no–but that’s different.”
“What’s different about it?”
“You’re much older.”
Silly question and answer number two. I’m wasting my breath, I should have confiscated them and binned them–except I know that he’d just buy more of them. I sympathise. He lives in a house full of women and the teenagers are very pretty, so he’s going to feel frustrated.
“Take your kit down to the washer now.” He picked it all up and shot out of his bedroom. I went to our room and found a bag of Simon’s he could use. It was bigger and better made and he could lock it more easily. Then I went down to my study asked Jacquie to make me a cuppa and started to make a list of the things I thought Danny would need to take with him.
I drank the tea and had managed to shorten it to about a hundred and fifty items–it was no good–men and women have different clothing requirements when going away. I take three times as much as Simon and have it packed a week before. He throws a few things in bag and we leave. I really don’t know which is better–except he doesn’t take into account that I wash, dry and iron the clothes he throws into the bag, without which he wouldn’t have a clean ones.
Si came to see where I was and the lists in front of me.
“What’s all this?”
“Danny’s going on that school trip to the battlefields.”
“Crikey, I’d forgotten all about that.”
“Well it’s a good job one of us remembered, isn’t it?” I lie so easily nowadays.
“It is–but then women are better at that sort of thing. All he needs is two of everything.”
“What two pairs of socks and underpants?”
“Yeah.”
“But he’s going for four days–he can’t wear the same underpants for more than a day–what if he gets wet or falls in the mud?”
“I think the mud was a hundred years ago, babes, an’ yeah he would wear the same underpants the whole time.”
“He isn’t going to.”
“Okay, four pairs then–what’s the problem with that?”
“I was going to pack eight lots.”
He shook his head and left muttering something or other.
Comments
Remind me again
... why men think they deserve these 'privileges'?
Kim
Packing.
For a short trip like Danny's it usually takes me about 10 minutes to pack and then I don't wear half the stuff I've taken. When we were on long cycle-camping tours it took a lot longer for much less kit because everything should be useful for two purposes - no pyjamas, I slept in nothing, or, if cold, everything I had in the panniers :). I used to take 3 identical socks, so one was being washed whilst wearing the other two ... then not wear any at all most of the time!
As for eight pairs of underpants ... words fail me :) Come to think of it, I'm not sure I own that many LOL
Robi
She seems to...
She seems to recognize that she's fighting a losing battle with Danny on the topic of the "magazines"... I knew quite a number of teen boys while growing up. I think my brother was much better at hiding the ones I know he got... Though, since I never did, perhaps he didn't need to, as my mom might have figured she didn't need to look. *shrugs*
Cathy may need to put down the law with respect to girls bike rids (as opposed to girls nights out)... Else the older two will continue to do things like this... And have some appropriate punishment when they test the boundaries next time, because test them they will.
As to packing... I'm not as bad as Simon, but with all the years of packing for trips... I do find I pack pretty quickly. The down side is I keep finding things I need while on trips...that I never ran into before. And, it's rarely the same thing... I've started carrying more but it's yet one more learning experience for me. LOL I'll get there (I mean to Boston, Tuesday).
Thanks,
Annette
Boys and men
Have been looking at such magazines for generations but now it has moved to the Internet. Oh, and now girls do it too. Humankind is a sexual species.
Does it exploit women? Maybe. It certainly was used to exploit men as it was and still is a billion dollar industry.
Overall though it is probably somewhat beneficial to Women. There is some evidence of less rapes as the Internet spreads. There is a little more evidence of less violence (not just against women but less violence period - I guess reducing frustrations is good for all). few men don' know what a clitorus is any more. Hopefully sex has improved for both sides with more knowledge on both sides.
There are still a lot of social and sociological questions unanswered and many not asked.
Danny is like any boy,
wonder what will happen on the trip.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Boys don't care if they stink
Men's bodies exhude the most rank reeking nausiating odiferous evil smell. Yet they seem to think that three or 4 days in their clothes is fine..
Gwendolyn
Men just don't smell it. It
Men just don't smell it. It smells like normal body smell thus it's not wrong :D
For four years
For four years after giving up the sea and working as a cargo and marine accident investigator, I travelled all over the world being away sometimes for weeks on end. Three pairs of underpants, six identical socks, two spare shirts. One spare pair of trousers/jeans one spare pair of trainers, one spare pair of sandals, one tie, one jacket, one toilet bag. It all fitted into a neat little suitcase that fitted into the cabin locker as 'carry-on' baggage. My other case was a metal, 'brief-case' sized sampling and reporting case that carried a small laboratory and testing equipment. I travelled all over the world and reached into some of the most inaccessible places wherever ships had become damaged or stranded or cargo damaged.
That was while masquerading as a man.
As a woman I fill a transit van with just my wardrobe and makeup and that's just for a weekend!
Oh yes. There is definitely a huge difference!!!!! Vive-la-difference.
Good chapter Ang, and yes, boys are disgusting. I have never ever been interested in gawking at naked women's bodies. Although I do like to see a pretty woman in a nice outfit and if it's the right circumstances, I will usually pay them some compliment concerning their appearence cos' it makes nearly all women feel like a million dollars.
Bevs.
XX
Bike
Perhaps Cathy should pack a small notepad and pen into the cases along with a note asking Danny to jot down his feelings visiting the sites during the trip.
This was a lovely weeks’ worth of episodes Ang, from romp to introspection, to the meaning of life and love.
Love to all
Anne G.
Bike
Oops.Duplicate comment
Poor Danny...
discovered by his Mum.... Bet he is regretting not hiding them better now .... Of course the next question is will Cathy tell Simon of her discovery, Which in turn leads to asking would Simon be pleased (secretly of course ) or would he be a stern father , I suspect given his background and his love of most boy pastimes it would be the former,But if he is sensible he will makesure Cathy will never finds out ...
Kirri
Great writing Angharad
Cathy getting nowhere with Danny on women being exploited. Loved the "oh yeah" when she asked what he'd think if the pics were of Julie or Sammi. Surprised Cathy didn't feel insulted for being dismissed as "much older".
Yeah, what women and men bring on trips is much different... and Bev, I agree with the identical socks - makes things so much easier.
Us girls might wear 2 pairs
of panties per day but most bloke's underwear seems to walk to the machine - or is it that most blokes see it as our job to pick up after them? one pair of underpants on and one pair in the wash.
S.
When
You throw them against the wall and it sticks, then it is time to change them.
*shudders*
But, yeah, I've heard that.
One thing I SAW in Uni (College to us colonials) was a pair of jeans that stood up by itself in the corner of an acquaintances suite common area. (Okay, it probably had some help. I understand it had been soaked in mud playing some sport, kicked off and "hardened" that way. The owner didn't wash (or wear) them for I dunno how long, as it always generated comments by visitors.)
Annette
Actually
Someone did study involving both men and women wearing the same pair of jeans every day for six months. There were no health issues and no smell issues (must have been in a cool climate). One participant mentioned that stains come and go. Another that jeans were in near perfect condition at the end of that time and it was washing not wearing that wore out clothes. One conclusion from the study was that clothes should be aired not washed unless stain removal was required.
I don't think it applied to underwear though.
Reminds me of a true story,
My son was 11 and had done something to his room, so when he got home from school I (in a very stern voice) asked him, "Young man, do you know what I found in your room!"
A very scared meek voice, "The playboy under my mattress?"
At this point I was having some difficulty keeping a straight face, it was hard. "No, but we'll get back to that!".
Big sister later explained to him you NEVER volunteer information when they were alone.