Greetings,
First of all, let me introduce myself, you can call me Sarah. That will serve as my forum name and the name I go by in my stories. I am a long time reader and first time poster here on this forum. I come from a large and rather awkward family when it comes to the whole ideal of tugs. I had a ton of them growing up as a child, both as somebody who got tied up and somebody who did some of the tying. I debated for some time whether or not I wanted to post a few of my experiences here. So, I thought I would share kind of my, "The first time I was tied up" stories. Actually, I am not sure if this was the first time I was tied up or not. However, it is the first one that I remember and what got me interested in the whole subject as a child.
It was the last 1970's, past 1975 but not 1980. I don't want to give my real age away. I have been around for quite some time. Back then, my family was still quite small. Just my parents who were still in their early 20's, my little brother Matt who had turned 3 a few months before this story and myself when I was 9. My family would increase in size by another 3 children before it finished, but back then it was just the four of us. My parents were a bit on the weird side, they weren't hippies, but they were still young and not quite matured as much as they should have having two children so far. My father was a used car salesman plain and simple. He worked the normal 9-5 grind getting home a little before 6 most evenings. My mother worked nights as a waitress Sunday through Tuesday from 10pm to 4am. It was a complicated marriage but they got along fine.
I should note, that there are somethings that happen in my stories that other's might not approve of today. There was never anything sexual about them. However, these were different times and society housed different ideals on child raising. For example, when my brother and I would get into trouble growing up, my parents would sometimes spank us with a yard stick. It wasn't hard enough to do any damage, just enough to make you smart for 10 minutes and think twice before you did it again. Today, that might get you arrested for child abuse, back then it was pretty common place. I can still remember going to school and seeing a wooden paddle hanging on the classroom wall. My mother has been dead for over a year now. My father is doing pretty well, but getting up there in years.
My parents saw each other in passing during the week and would try their best to spend time together on the weekends and when they could. Friday night was always one of those times. Every Friday from when I could remember back to back then, my parents would go out on a date together. They would usually leave our home around 7 and arrive back at 10 to 10:30. Usually, Matt would be asleep by then and they would get home in time to put me to bed if I wasn't already. Friday, went through a certain ritual. I would get home from school around 3:20 or so in the after noon and do homework or play for an hour or two. After that, my mother would make us an early dinner around 5:00 for my younger brother and me. Then, we went through what we called getting ready for the babysitter time. My normal bed time was 9:30 on school nights and 10 on weekends when I was 9 years old. My younger brother was usually asleep before then. He would usually tire himself out and pass out willingly long before 9 rolled around. Sometimes I would be asleep myself before 10 and sometimes I would stay up later. My mother never really made a big deal out of it as long as I was asleep by 11:00 which I always was.
Getting ready for the baby sitter time was just a movement forward of our normal bedtime routine. My brother and I would take a bath, brush our teeth, and change into pajamas for the evening. That way, the baby sitter wouldn't have to deal with any of that. We would be all ready for bed when he arrived and when we got tired or it was bedtime, he would just put out down for the night. When, I say he, I am referring to the current baby sitter that we had. I went through 3 or 4 of them growing up until I was 14 and began watching my younger siblings myself. The current one was a teenager named Jeremy from two streets down. I didn't know him or his family before he started babysitting us. However, his father worked with my Dad and it worked out well. Jeremy could use some extra money and my dad could use a night off.
I listened as the engine of my father's car pulled into the driveway. I had just climbed out of the bathtub and gotten dressed a few minutes ago. I was just finishing up brushing my teeth when the car pulled up. It was the second week of October, but I could be off by two weeks one way or the other not that is really matters. I slipped over to the bathroom window that overlooked the front driveway. Sure enough, Jeremy climbed out of the front passenger seat of my father's car. It would be the second week that Jeremy was babysitting us. The previous week had been pretty fun on my side of things. Probably less on Jeremy's. My father payed him a dollar an hour for his services. That was a lot of money back then, especially for a 15 year old boy watching two children for an evening. I had made him earn every penny of it.
The boy was dumber than a box of rocks in my opinion. We had spent the night before playing hide and go seek. My little brother Matt didn't quite have the concept of the game down, but he knew how to go hide someplace. But, after about 10 minutes if you didn't find him, he would come find you. So, it turned into a game of Jeremy and Matt look for me. Jeremy tried hiding a few times, but I found him easily since he was such a large target. It had been a fun time on our party, but between my knowing every corner of the house to hide in, and chasing Matt around all evening we had worn the poor boy out. I clicked open the bathroom door and began making my way down the stairs.
I was about average in height for my age with blue eyes and a medium build. My hair was a shade between auburn and medium brown and I wore it loosely hanging down just past my neck. I kept enough if I wanted to make a pony tail, but kept it short enough that it wouldn't be troublesome. I was dressed in a light red set of feeted pajamas. One of those one piece fleece things with a zipper that went from the chin down to the waist in the front. It had rib nit cuffs, the little white skid resistant vinyl feet with the toe caps and a teddy bear applique on the front chest area of it. My mother believed in them quite a bit and I ended up wearing then from the start of October through the end of April. Both me and my brother did. I grew out of the habit about the time I turned 12, but that was still a long way off.
When I was younger, from when I was 6 to about the time I was 10, I went through a strange fascination with hats. My wardrobe normally included one unless I was at school or sleeping. During the warmer moths of the year, I normally wore a baseball cap. During the cooler months, I wore a knit hat that added a rather mixed contrast to my current outfit. I was a white knit hat with a pink pom pom up on the top of it. The side of it had short ear flaps that hung down slightly covering the sides of my head. Off of each of the ear flaps hung a short string that ended in another much smaller white pom pom. They could be tied under the chin if you wanted the ear flaps on the hat to stay down. Looking at the picture of it now, it really is a stupid looking thing. I look like a teletubbie, but back then I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
I wore the hat with the ear flaps untied and the strings hanging freely from the sides of my head. I retreated from the window and hastened my preparations. A few minutes later I finished and made my way down the hallway to the kitchen to great our guest. By the time I arrived, Jeremy was in the kitchen and already conversing with my parents. They were going through the normal check list of expectations and how they could be reached in an emergency. My mother reminded him where the first aid kit was and that the telephone number of the restaurant my parents were going too was in the fridge in case he needed to reach them. This was over a decade before the first cell phone came out.
I rounded the corner and stood there looking up at Jeremy. He looked back down catching sight of me and returned my gaze with a warm smile. "Alright Jeremy, well be back at 10:00 or a little after. You should put Matt down around 8 or 9, whenever he tires out. Have Sarah in bed by a little before we get home or earlier if she gives you any trouble." My mother rattled off. Jeremy nodded and gave a short reply. "Don't worry, last time we had a lot of fun. I am sure they won't give me any trouble." My mother returned the nod and gave us a quick instruction to be good. Then after a quick hug and kiss goodbye, they departed leaving us standing there with our new baby sitter.
The three of us listened as the engine of the car pulled away. "So, what do you want to do tonight Jeremy?" I asked looking up at him. "Do you want to play hide and go seek again?" The young man just shook his head. "I had something else in mind for this week. Follow me into the living room if you two would. I just lifted my shoulders and followed him. Matt was carrying a small sippy cup that my mother had filled with apple juice before she left. He was working on it slowly and just followed the two of us silently. I was really wondering what Jeremy had in mind. "Can you two sit on the couch for a moment please while I get set up?" He asked looking over at the pair of us.
I took Matt by the hand and led him over the two of us just hopped down on the sofa. Well, I lifted Matt up then sat down myself. Jeremy walked over to the desk where my father kept most of the bills and a few office supplies. He reached around behind it and jerked something loose after a long effort. I just sat and watch trying to figure out what he had in mind. My imagination was soaring with different ideas, Matt's mind was probably occupied examining the floral patter of our living room wallpaper. Jeremy worked the item loose of the wall and dragged it into an open space adjacent to the sofa in the living room and began setting it up. The item in question was a playpen. My mother had bought it for me a few years earlier when I was a toddler and it still saw some use from time to time with Matt.
The playpen unfolded and went into the main shape pretty easily. When it was set up, it had 4 corner posts that formed a 4 foot by 5 and 1/2 foot box. The floor of the playpen sat on 4 corner posts and was raised about half an inch off the floor and padded. The top of each post was connected by a padded railing and a mesh wall went around the whole thing. It set up easily in a few minutes. Jeremy quickly snapped the last connector into place. "Sarah, would you come over here please and bring Matt with you?" I hopped up off the sofa and led my little brother along by one hand. The other one he used to drag the sippy cup along with him. My brother was dressed in an outfit similar to mine except his didn't have anything on the chest and was green in color. He padded along next to me quietly without saying anything. The two of us arrived at the playpen in about a minute.
Jeremy reached down and used his left hand to break the the grip I had on my little brother. He reached underneath my brother's arms and lifted him by his arm pits depositing him into the play pen. "Sarah, could you lift your arms up please?" I did as I was requested, and Jeremy attempted the same lift he had on Matt. I was quite a bit heavier, but I stepped my legs up and worked myself in when I realized his intention of placing me inside the playpen with Matt. When my feet were on the ground, he released his hold on me. Then he stepped back and looked at the two of us.
"So, what are we going to play?" I asked looking up at Jeremy. "We are not going to play anything Sarah. Well, at least I am not. You two are going to play in here for a few hours until bed time and I am going to watch some TV. You guys really wore me out last time." With that, Jeremy made his way around to a nearby shelf and collected a few toys off of it a random. Whatever he could fit in an arm load. He dumped them into the playpen and then headed over for the television and the couch. Five minutes later he was watching TV with a bowl of pretzels and a soda and I was sitting in a corner looking across at my little brother. He had is attention divided between a toy truck and his cup of juice. To say the least, I was less than thrilled with the situation.
When Jeremy was sitting on the sofa again, I began to protest. I don't have a clue what I said. Mostly that I was too old for the playpen and wanted out. Jeremy responded by doing two things. First, he turned up the television. Secondly, he just ignored me. I pouted and threatened to tell my parents for about 20 minutes. He looked over his should once and commented that they already knew about his current plans. Then he returned to watching television. After another 5 minute or so, I tired out of complaining. It wasn't working. So, I decided to do something about it.
The walls of the playpen were just tall enough that my younger brother could get his eyes up over the bar if he stood on his tip toes. I wasn't so vertically challenged. It took a few minutes and a couple of tries, but I managed to pull myself over the edge of the playpen pretty easily and lowered my feet onto the floor of the living room. Jeremy was invested in whatever he was watching at the time and completely unaware of my plans. I walked across the room and came up behind the sofa as silently as a tiger stalking it's prey. Well, as loud as the television was, I could have take a train to reach Jeremy and he wouldn't had know. I reached up on tip toe behind the sofa and brought my hands up over his eyes. "Guess who?" I asked trying to get his attention. Given my brother's size and gender, his answer had a much greater than 50% chance of being correct. Jeremy jerked forward pulling away from my grasp and drawing me close to the couch.
He didn't respond verbally. He just stood up and walked around the sofa. The young man grabbed me gently around the wasted and lifted me as if I was a sack of potatoes onto one of his shoulders to support my body weight. He walked the dozen feet or so that he had to and plopped me down back in the playpen with Matt. My brother had abandoned the truck and moved onto some blocks with letters on them. Then, Jeremy went back to his seat on the sofa. Well, I wasn't going to let this little setback slow me down. It took me another 2 or 3 minutes to mount the wall of the playpen again. Then, I came up behind him and the two of us repeated our last performance. This time he instructed me to stay put and went back to his television show.
Now, I was getting annoyed with Jeremy, but this was really turning into a fun activity. I decided to mix things up the third time. It took me a good 7 minutes for my third escape. First, I lifted Matt up over the edge and dropped him out. It was hard given that he weight almost half what I did, but he helped as best he could when he realized that I was trying to get him out of the playpen. Then, I escaped on my on the way I had the first two times. Then, I told Matt to go play in our room and went up to bug Jeremy again when Matt had departed. This time, he was less than a little unhappy with me. He turned around and looked me in the eye. Then, he realized that Matt was gone and he was doubly upset.
"Fine, you win, I want to watch the next 5 minute of this program, then you and I can play something if you want. However, I don't have the patience to chance Matt all over the house. That is why I set up the playpen in the first place. I wanted to catch this show, but it's almost over now. If you will go bring Matt back, we'll play something when you get back with him. Do we have a deal?" Jeremy asked looking down at me. "OK deal, I'll go get Matt." Jeremy nodded. I left the room content that I had outsmarted someone nearly twice my age. I was proud that he was stupid enough to believe that I would stay on that stupid playpen while he watched television.
The trip to our room was pretty short. I found Matt hiding under the bed. Apparently, he thought we were playing the same game as last week. He was definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed at his current age. I keeled down and tapped him on the shoulder. "Found you." I commented and waited for him to emerge from his hiding place. "Come on, Jeremy says we need to stay in the living room tonight. That is why he set up the playpen for us." I explained extending my hand towards my younger brother. He filled my empty hand with his sippy cup. "More juicy" He replied looking at me. I could tell from the weight that there was a little left, but I decided to appease him rather than argue with him. "Come on, I will get you some more."
I took Matt and lead him along by the other hand into the kitchen. We made a brief stop by the fridge where I opened the door. There was a pitcher of apple juice on the second shelf. I worked the top of my brother sippy cup off easily enough and asked him to hold it still while I refilled it to nearly full. Then, I returned the pitcher to the fridge. Finally, I screwed the sippy top back on the the lip of the cup. Matt looked very happy. Then, I took him by the hand. The two of us made the 25 foot trip or so back to the playpen in the living room. I yelled over to Jeremy trying to be heard over top of the television. Apparently he heard me, because he got up and turned the television off. Then, he crossed the room and lifted Matt, cup and all, back into the playpen. My brother took his situation contently and seated himself working on his second cup of juice.
"All right, thanks a lot for getting Matt back for me. You did a great job." I smiled back soaking up the admiration he offered. "Do you want to play hide and seek again?" I asked him. Jeremy shook his head back and fourth slowly. "No, I think we should play something else. After all if you are too old for a playpen, you are also too old for hide and seek. I know a game you have probably never played before. Would you like to give it a shot?" He asked looking down at me. He chose his words carefully trying to draw my interest into the matter. It worked quite well. My response was a quick yes.
"All right, the game is called magician and I will show you how to play in a minute. However, we need a few things first. Could you help me collect them, I don't know where everything is stored around your house?" I nodded easily looking around the room. Matt was standing up peering over the edge of the playpen looking at the two of us. Again I nodded and told him I would be happy to help. "OK, the first thing we need is a jump rope, do you have one of those?" Jeremy asked me. "Yeah we have a couple of them in my room and in the garage." I replied to the inquiry.
"Is it the type with the little plastic tubes around the rope that make it click or just a normal one?" He asked. I told him it was just a normal jump rope with two plastic handles on the ends. "Good, that would be perfect for this game. Would you mind getting it for me. I will get the rest of the game set up while you're gone." Again I nodded and began to depart for my room soon afterward.
This is getting long. I am going to divide the story here and continue it later this week. Thanks for reading.
Sarah