What I did during the Summer (FM/F)
Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 8:33 am
Growing up in an age before the internet (but after the dinosaurs I hasten to add) I was a huge fan of the Nancy Drew series of novels. She was my absolute hero and I was obsessed with her adventures, often consuming an entire book in a single sitting (not counting meals/ bathroom breaks etc).Â
For the uninitiated, Nancy Drew was a teenage girl sleuth who, in the course of solving various local mysteries would often run afoul of various criminal elements of the town. For reasons I did not yet understand, my favourite part of all of her stories were the scenes in which she would be caught, and oftentimes tied up. Indeed I remember scan reading all of the Nancy Drew books in the library to find any scenes in which she was captured (and thus decide which to borrow for the weekend). It was like mining for precious gold. Fortunately the chapter headings usually contained a helpful hint as to their contents - for the discerning reader they might as well called the chapter "Nancy gets bound and gagged"
Although they were written with a young audience in mind the bad guys were often quite unpleasant to Nancy, indeed I recall one scene in particular in which the female protagonist was described as taking particular delight in making her gag "cruelly tight"Â
There was one particular scene i was absolutely fascinated with, it was the one in which Nancy was left bound and gagged with a deadly spider for company.
Yowzers!
I was both thrilled and terrified in equal measure.
What that would be like to be trussed up like that?
Eventually I plumped up the courage to act out the scene in my bedroom using a handful of Mum's old scarves and a rubber tarantula I found in the toy cupboard - Note: I was still far too scared of actual spiders to play in the shed where they might actually live,..
Blessed with an overactive imagination and plenty of free time I was always writing stories and drawing comic strips in which I was cast as the principal heroine. As you might imagine, these tales always seemed to feature a scene (or more likely several) in which my character was captured and had to escape from the clutches of an evil mastermind (the more things change,..)
Incidentally, I found an old notebook from the time (Mum had kept it in the loft) and they were almost hilariously bad.
Anyway, as I got a little older/ braver I began acting out some of these scenes, playing the part of the hostage of a gang of ruthless cattle rustlers, or a boat full of scurvy pirates.Â
Lets just say that my grans attic was a great substitute for the hull of a ship, an abandoned diamond mine, or a submarine. Â
I soon got pretty adept at tying myself up tight enough that I would feel helpless, but loose enough that I could quickly get free if I heard anyone on the stairs
Mostly I played these games by myself, although I occasionally managed to persuade some of the local boys to incorporate a kidnap scene into their war games - although truthfully they were all rather hopeless jailers.
However the highlight of my career as a wannabee teen detective was undoubtedly the Summer that I spent the holidays with my Grandparents, who, after a great deal of cajoling/ begging on my part were finally persuaded to join in with my games.
Naturally they were cast as kidnappers, more specifically a pair of retired spies who had caught me snooping around their house and were now intent on keeping me prisoner. With my hands and feet fastened together with skipping ropes it was pretty easy to lose myself in the fantasy that I was the young hero caught snooping by a pair of ageing villains, particularly since my Gran took such great pleasure in teasing me when I was captured.Â
"There! Not so smart now are you my little sleuth?! All tied up and nowhere to go!"
Clearly a lifetime of watching corny soap operas had given her an ear (and abiding love) for hackneyed dialogue.
She even started wearing an eye patch during our scenes together saying it made her character more "mysterious".Â
Well, who was I to complain? Eventually we all began developing our own characters:Â
Gran was the impossibly glamorous diamond smuggler Grace Fontaine, Granddad was her bungling sidekick Legs Malone and I was the teen detective Samantha Drew (Nancy's fictional cousin)Â
For my part I would usually dress in jeans and a checked shirt, but sometimes I would change into my school uniform (which I had smuggled over in my rucksack so my parents wouldn't become suspicious)
Granddad was always teasing us for our hammy acting, but secretly he loved playing and really threw himself into the role of Gran's henchman, particularly when she ordered him to "tie up the meddling school girl and make sure it's good and tight!"
In reality Granddad was a total softie and the ropes were never terribly uncomfortable, but it was fun to pretend (although it should be noted that when Gran applied the cords herself I was rarely, if ever, capable of getting loose without help)
When the games were in their infancy Gran would usually be content simply tying my hands and feet and I often had to talk my way into being gagged -Â
"Aren't you forgetting something? I might cry out for help" etc, however they soon began to take the hint and started to incorporate it into our games (and occasionally a blindfold too) Eventually Gran began keeping a pair of freshly laundered handkerchiefs in her purse specifically for this purpose. Sometimes she'd even remind my to put "my gags in the washing basket", which always made me smile.
As the plots became more developed, so too did the 'death traps' and it was not unusual for me to find myself tied to a chair with a 'bomb' in my lap (in reality an alarm clock radio) or threatened with being burnt at the stake. It was, all considered, tremendous fun. Sadly however, as with all things, the games died out when I went back to school.Â
Maybe they felt I was getting a little too old to be rolling around in a dusty attic playing make-believe? (If only they knew,..)
However, to this day Grace Fontaine and Legs Malone will occasionally make reference to the Summer that their Granddaughter was a plucky teen detective,..
For the uninitiated, Nancy Drew was a teenage girl sleuth who, in the course of solving various local mysteries would often run afoul of various criminal elements of the town. For reasons I did not yet understand, my favourite part of all of her stories were the scenes in which she would be caught, and oftentimes tied up. Indeed I remember scan reading all of the Nancy Drew books in the library to find any scenes in which she was captured (and thus decide which to borrow for the weekend). It was like mining for precious gold. Fortunately the chapter headings usually contained a helpful hint as to their contents - for the discerning reader they might as well called the chapter "Nancy gets bound and gagged"
Although they were written with a young audience in mind the bad guys were often quite unpleasant to Nancy, indeed I recall one scene in particular in which the female protagonist was described as taking particular delight in making her gag "cruelly tight"Â
There was one particular scene i was absolutely fascinated with, it was the one in which Nancy was left bound and gagged with a deadly spider for company.
Yowzers!
I was both thrilled and terrified in equal measure.
What that would be like to be trussed up like that?
Eventually I plumped up the courage to act out the scene in my bedroom using a handful of Mum's old scarves and a rubber tarantula I found in the toy cupboard - Note: I was still far too scared of actual spiders to play in the shed where they might actually live,..
Blessed with an overactive imagination and plenty of free time I was always writing stories and drawing comic strips in which I was cast as the principal heroine. As you might imagine, these tales always seemed to feature a scene (or more likely several) in which my character was captured and had to escape from the clutches of an evil mastermind (the more things change,..)
Incidentally, I found an old notebook from the time (Mum had kept it in the loft) and they were almost hilariously bad.
Anyway, as I got a little older/ braver I began acting out some of these scenes, playing the part of the hostage of a gang of ruthless cattle rustlers, or a boat full of scurvy pirates.Â
Lets just say that my grans attic was a great substitute for the hull of a ship, an abandoned diamond mine, or a submarine. Â
I soon got pretty adept at tying myself up tight enough that I would feel helpless, but loose enough that I could quickly get free if I heard anyone on the stairs
Mostly I played these games by myself, although I occasionally managed to persuade some of the local boys to incorporate a kidnap scene into their war games - although truthfully they were all rather hopeless jailers.
However the highlight of my career as a wannabee teen detective was undoubtedly the Summer that I spent the holidays with my Grandparents, who, after a great deal of cajoling/ begging on my part were finally persuaded to join in with my games.
Naturally they were cast as kidnappers, more specifically a pair of retired spies who had caught me snooping around their house and were now intent on keeping me prisoner. With my hands and feet fastened together with skipping ropes it was pretty easy to lose myself in the fantasy that I was the young hero caught snooping by a pair of ageing villains, particularly since my Gran took such great pleasure in teasing me when I was captured.Â
"There! Not so smart now are you my little sleuth?! All tied up and nowhere to go!"
Clearly a lifetime of watching corny soap operas had given her an ear (and abiding love) for hackneyed dialogue.
She even started wearing an eye patch during our scenes together saying it made her character more "mysterious".Â
Well, who was I to complain? Eventually we all began developing our own characters:Â
Gran was the impossibly glamorous diamond smuggler Grace Fontaine, Granddad was her bungling sidekick Legs Malone and I was the teen detective Samantha Drew (Nancy's fictional cousin)Â
For my part I would usually dress in jeans and a checked shirt, but sometimes I would change into my school uniform (which I had smuggled over in my rucksack so my parents wouldn't become suspicious)
Granddad was always teasing us for our hammy acting, but secretly he loved playing and really threw himself into the role of Gran's henchman, particularly when she ordered him to "tie up the meddling school girl and make sure it's good and tight!"
In reality Granddad was a total softie and the ropes were never terribly uncomfortable, but it was fun to pretend (although it should be noted that when Gran applied the cords herself I was rarely, if ever, capable of getting loose without help)
When the games were in their infancy Gran would usually be content simply tying my hands and feet and I often had to talk my way into being gagged -Â
"Aren't you forgetting something? I might cry out for help" etc, however they soon began to take the hint and started to incorporate it into our games (and occasionally a blindfold too) Eventually Gran began keeping a pair of freshly laundered handkerchiefs in her purse specifically for this purpose. Sometimes she'd even remind my to put "my gags in the washing basket", which always made me smile.
As the plots became more developed, so too did the 'death traps' and it was not unusual for me to find myself tied to a chair with a 'bomb' in my lap (in reality an alarm clock radio) or threatened with being burnt at the stake. It was, all considered, tremendous fun. Sadly however, as with all things, the games died out when I went back to school.Â
Maybe they felt I was getting a little too old to be rolling around in a dusty attic playing make-believe? (If only they knew,..)
However, to this day Grace Fontaine and Legs Malone will occasionally make reference to the Summer that their Granddaughter was a plucky teen detective,..
