
Back when I was around fifteen the girl guides had little appeal to me. From the couple of meetings I went to, I personally found things to be a bit static and docile there, and looking for new forms of outdoor fun, I instead joined the scouts. I was not the only girl there, and for my duration there were two other girls who were consistently there. A few others joined briefly from time to time but decided it was not for them.
Perhaps they were worried about a potential lack of inclusion in the activities of the boys, who were of course in the majority. This was never the case for myself, Megan, (a tomboy like myself) and Lizzie (who was extremely pretty and quite prissy, not an obvious candidate but she was nice enough). I would wrestle the boys, and usually win, and on activities probably spend more time with them than the other girls.
One of the few tie ups where I actually did the tieing occurred during this time. The troop’s hut had a low but large storage beneath it, where various supplies, mostly for camping but also rope and long wooden poles were kept. An activity that we did fairly frequently was using these poles, which ranged from about 5 to 10 foot high, to create a kind of climbing frame/assault course, which is made with some ambitious would include monkey bars, steep ascents, and rope swings. We were more or less left alone to do it in our groups, and it was here that I learned a fair few knots and how to do lashing.
I was in a group with four of the guys. We’d built a kinda cube, and two of the younger boys, who must have been 12 or 13, asked us to show them how to do lashing.
“I’ll show you,” said James, who was one of the senior ones aged about sixteen. I noticed a smirk on his face, and he told one of the younger boy (one of them was called Freddie, but I can’t recall which or the name of the other) to put his hands behind his back and place them on the support beam of our structure.
“It’s mostly just a matter of keeping it tight, pulling on the rope so that it won’t slip, and looping it several times so that I will hold. With a lot of us running over this course, you don’t want any of the poles giving away.” As James said this he took a cord of rope and slipped behind the boy and began fastening his wrists to the wood in the way that he described. He continued narrating as he did so, explaining why each loop and twist was needed. Within a few minutes the boy (who should probably just be assumed to be Freddie, the other can be Tom because why not) was struggling and pulling to no avail, his neckerchief wobbling weakly.
Seeing a chance for a competition I decided to tie Tom in a similar manner, and Chris, the other boy present, would act as judge on who was the better rope worker. Tom, who was quite shy normally, looked a little intimidated at this, but complied, and allowed me to tie him in a similar manner, although I decided to tie his hands apart, and utilised where two of the beams met for his left hand.
When I had finished Chris inspected the knots and told the boys try and free themselves. They wriggled and struggled, but the knots held (one of mine, which wasn’t the one by the crossover, slipped slightly, but I don’t think Chris saw), and it was tactfully decided to be a draw.
Freddie then asked how long they had to stay like that, and James, quite gleefully, removed their scout neckerchief and placed them loosely over their eyes as blindfolds. I can’t imagine they were that effective and that they still let a lot of light in at the sides, but it was still pretty funny.
We left them tied for the next ten minutes or so whilst we continued on the structure. The scout master, a man whose nickname was Walnut (the name has an odd story behind it) walked passed with little more than an amused glance. After that time had passed we decided that Freddie and Tom still needed to learn lashing for themselves, and we let them go.
So yeah, another of my more innocent outside stories. As promised, two more instances, still with the scouts, which I saw.

-One of the guys was taken by the others and placed on his back across a very basic wooden bench at this site we were staying at (it might actually have been Megan’s idea). His arms were tied above his head, his legs together, and like in my previous story, his neckerchief was used as a rudimentary blindfold. I recall his boots were also taken off for some reason, and placed on his chest. The guys pretended to leave, and he called out to us as we silently climbed trees nearby (I should probably stress this was done with no ill-intend and the boy in question did not take it as such).
-The other time I came across a boy called Charlie with his arms above his head, his wrists tied together in the bit of the tree where the trunk splits into two. I don’t know how this began, but it was quite interesting for myself and Lizzie, as Charlie was probably the best looking guy in the troops quite short, but very athletic, tanned, quite remarkable eyes. We amused to see that he was swinging from the branch and laughing hysterically, apparently being very ticklish as a couple of the other boys took advantage of his helpless stomach, ribcage, and armpits. This went on for several minutes before he was given a break and let down.
Hope you enjoyed reading those
