Moving on into 2021

In this anything that doesn't quite slot into the either the original blog or that uniformed schoolboy sometimes I do publish some kind of a reflection on the year and other times I just don't.

I suppose the first thing to say was the year was challenging when every single tumblr account of mine was terminated and equally two months later so was my Wordpress blogs so not only did I lose a bunch of Tumblr blogs, I also lost the back ups for them.

That was the reason why having found it, I restored the original blog to provide some of the history and background that never was in that uniformed school boy and that would function more as a tumblr replacement.

I did re-establish That Traditional Schoolboy (TSB) on Tumblr, an age regression centred one (That Smol Boy) and a more general facts, adventure and boyhood interests on (A Traditional Schoolboy) but I am under no illusion that what goes up can go down and that the only way to publish securely what I want is on my own blogs.

That fact does limit what I can post and the ability to publish sequences of posts  without being misunderstood before being terminated.

One facet of this blog tends to be discussion around what boyhood means, past issues around how that affects self image and recovery from all of that which in last year had the struggles of living with Coronavirus restrictions added to the mix.

For all that Coronavirus brought, I moved past many of those issues facing fears head on, exploring and actually enjoying being that boy all over again as with much of the community off work or working from home our worlds crossed and I was accepted for just being that, getting on with life, following the guidance.

I did get away at the start of the year with adventures that in hindsight set me up for the remainder and it was the year that I decided to take the plunge and go back not to just boyhood in so many of its trappings but also to have my shorts taken a good way up to where they were back then.

Mine had been like many of biological age boys of today on or only just above the knee short trousers because they were not long (yuck) but nothing like the short trousers we had then or even adults did wear a leisure wear in the mid nineties.

To be out as I was a week before Christmas exploring, scrambling on your knees in the winter sun with most of legs exposed glistening is and was so evocative of that time I felt just like a ten or possibly twelve year old boy just playing outdoors.

Short trousers of that length are so me, something I feel comfortable in my own skin wearing that I can't see myself wearing except in the most adverse conditions anything else that indeed that's what I'm wearing typing this with temperatures at minus two degrees c.

I did talk a bit across the year about the need to respect and provide separate spaces for boys and men as much as we all would agree equality of opportunity helping us grow as people which I certainly have this last year

It's been very much a boys own year for me learning to embrace and enjoy the male world being out with people and channelling those more masculine interests I had back then and indeed one are where it showed was just a few days ago. 

I had long missed my original action man figures, something I fondly recall playing both on my own and with other boys with, the memory of clearly showing that the odd untypical interest aside, I was just like every other boy of my era.

Well, I finally got a replacement for Christmas and  undoing it took my right back to that era, dressed as I was in school uniform with short trousers in the company of my parents on Christmas day opening it, I was smiling again.

My boyhood hero and I were reunited as one. Boy and Man back together, playing having fun.

2021 cannot be anything like the period before I found ASB and that came back too and Tumblr because I have moved on so much in that time certain of being just a regular boy in a adult body who loves being himself.

Christmas edition

This blog will be paused for a period after Christmas as I'll be busy helping out my family make Christmas happen and unlike in previous years in 2020 I am expected not to spending my time stuffing myself with chocolate while being online as part of making more more responsible for myself and others within my limits, helping out, doing more.

Christmas in any event our time of year, a time for me with memories of things such as school christmas parties, plays and the annual carol service not to mention the christmas post box we used to send cards to one another.

I'd watch the carol concert from King's with my parents while playing records of carols and festive songs as we decorated the Christmas Tree under which there would be on the day presents.

***Happy Christmas, Boys***

The Family and the Boy

Nine days to go before The Day as my Barber's reminded me yesterday when I went in for my Christmas tidy up dressed as ever in grey lined schools short trousers and matching turnover socks with two green bars with garters holding them up.

Clearly this boy just received a piece of news he wasn't quite expecting from his Mummy but it isn't that that gets my attention here.

No, it is the fact this boy lives in a family where everyone knows who they are, where there are two adults to help raise the boy and he knows that he is not a mini adult but just a boy whose wishes are subservient to the grown ups who look after him.

There is shall we say a clear structure in place and that is for the good.

It is sad some family relationships do break down but somewhere down the line we've moved from saying we ought to give boys and girls the best most ideal start we can to one of it doesn't matter when so many in society are dealing with the lack of time, the muddled boundaries and standards in those who have been brought up in unstable settings not receiving the attention and love  they need to grow becoming responsible citizens.

Boys especially benefit from one to one male support of the sort fathers and uncles are best placed to provide.

Adults need to consider more what they have to offer a child and be prepared to changes to their lives before having one and in the event of any unforeseen circumstances put the child's welfare first.

Play and middle me

I wasn't really what you might call a softie kind of a kid for being a disabled boy I was as I liked to run, play with things and wasn't too fussed if I got all muddy cos it would all come off with a cloth if not a hot bath and we had plenty o' them.

Mum may not of been too happy with an extra demand on the hot water and having to wash my shirt and socks but at least I was out with friends having fun.

Some of our games my raise the odd eyebrow today especially war games that involved tying the "enemy" up and making them reveal their 'secrets' but we knew our limits not going beyond that persons comfort zone.

At other times we'd play sports for fun or games such as chess, darts or mouse trap together.

The biggest thing was the play, the unfolding adventure and it's that I like to relive today as the Middle with a little side adult boy I am when I'm able to be away with others.

Winter is here!

 

As I'm typing this from the bedroom HQ it is officially 1 degrees C here and while in terms of the school year it isn't Winter, really this winter with a capital W quite noticeable as we don't have any central heating which is straight out of my boyhood as we never had it with just electric heaters on briefly due to the expense and seeing the steam as you're standing there having a pee in the morning as that's much warmer than the air around you.

What they say about wool is quite true, it certainly traps your body heat and keeps you warm wither or not we are talking tank tops, jumpers or proper long socks while allowing your skin to breath unlike man-made fabrics.

Thus as crazy as it may sound to some you'll see me out this winter in my shorts.

Thoughts from between the sheets

It hasn't been the best start to the week to be honest with experiencing a severe migraine that has lasted several days so I've been in bed, curtains drawn and off food which is par for the course.

It's not something I am unfamiliar with having had these from early boyhood missing parties and schooldays and I can remember well staring at the curtains sometimes if I felt a little better reading a little from a Shoot annual or the Blue Peter books I had trying to keep my spirits up.

Days feel long when you're in bed all day.

This weeks coming Beano had arrived in the post as I have a subscription so I was able to look at that a little having a chuckle at Billy Whizz's and Dennis's adventures and the classic schoolboy and girl jokes printed at the bottom of some of the pages.

It isn't how it used to be this is true but when look at the longer picture, whenever new illustrators have come in how each character is drawn such as Dennis changes and with him a part of that is due to tying in with the made for tv cartoon version which given it was aimed to be shown on the BBC, they also placed some content restrictions.

The old school me may regret some of those changes but by doing so, they've kept it and good chunk of the old cartoon strips in children's minds today, relevant to them ensuring the comic is in business and not as with so many of my youth, no longer produced.

Boyhood fashion musings

Sometimes I talk a bit about attire on here, sometimes about whatever may be on my mind, sometimes more around boys regression and I feel that makes it different.

That's always been what makes this blog different than the others, it's a bit "behind the scenes" and it has a different sort of focus really.

One thing that has fascinated me really from childhood onwards are fashion trends and how they influence even those things that are not really meant to be fashionable by design.

For instance there was during the late eighties a push on Grandfather Shirts with rounded necks that never really took off and then there was the battle between the traditional duffle coat versus the cool 'mod' influenced Parker Jacket with its fur trimmed hood and the push in the late 80's for the Baseball jacket, not that as Brits we generally play that game.

I did have a few at the time!

But anyway the big one was waists on our underpants, shorts and long trousers because if you get low waisted shorts with high or natural waisted underpants you usually end up with a fair bit showing at the rear!

Thing is I remember when I was much younger how the waists of my shorts were and any 'tailored' longs too and they went to your natural waist - the thing we measure to get our trousers to fit - and that our shirt tails were longer than today.

Toss in our interlocking vests and underpants and that was snug.

This boys are at the natural waist and that was how it looked with a sleeveless jersey or standard jersey on.

As I got older I started to notice the waist bands started getting lower and starting to feel draughts more around the small of my back (my spine is curved, usually in pain and I notice stuff like this) and it got to the point that in America, then President Obama felt obliged to call out the trend for those wearing "low rider" trousers showing not just the waist band of their underpants but a fair bit of bum!

Where did this low waist trend come from and was it about just saving material costs?

Things come together eventually II

Last week I was talking a bit about how in a number of ways I am finding myself acting and being more of my emotional age not least with how the current Pandemic is affecting  life in a lot of ways.

For instance I have read from time to time comics although I haven't had a regular one in the way that growing up (allegedly) I had that you'd know that say every Wednesday you get the Beano come through the door or that at weekends my nan would give me the weeks Dandy although I do have a regular football magazine currently fortnightly.

That will be changing soon but just you know being to just say that able to say that to my parents as an everyday tidbit of chat without it being an issue is an indication that they too have accepted how I've changed.

I mean they do see me in and pre covid we'd been out for meals in grey school shorts, a school shirt with tie and grey turn over socks.

I did mention how I am seen and am treated in the wider community last time but an interesting thing happened this weekend as I was walking back home passing the house next door to a man I've know from (official) boyhood.

I walk passed looking from left to right with a woolly bobble hat on as a woman probably in their 40's or 50's opens the door to put the milk bottles out as I go by just striking my nose with a finger which is probably a nervous tic.

Anyway she looks toward me and shouts "You can look. I'm keeping a close eye on you" without adding any other word such as "Laddie" but the general tone is very much one of a woman addressing and admonishing a child.

It isn't a conversation with an adult. There is no "Excuse me why are you...." just a child pre-judged and cautioned anyway.

Obviously she is reading me as a boy! 

All I can say is it's a feeling I remember very much from being "Told off" for going down a path to the playground by a woman who lived by it. In Public!!!

Things come together eventually

We enter a new month as the old and the new as ever crisscross in my life as one sad thing was the funeral of Karen's father which followed about a year back her mothers, a man most respected by all of us and the wider community of which he was a pillar.

That on top of the loss of Karl's father kind of reminds you of how the bone age is advancing, a point he raised with me the other week when he enquired about my parents who naturally are of a similar age which bearing in mind we were all in the same class in Juniors isn't that surprising

The difference in a way is while they have some traits still from childhood, they're not mentally in grey shorts like me or pinafore dresses in the way some adult little girls may be, not that I'd know and if anything the thing I can say is today more perhaps than ever I've jettisoned much of the thin surface of simulated adulthood for the position of that boy called "sonny" by men and with just as much real say and authority as a ten year old child.

Covid has had lots of effects but for me the bigger one has been to just living more as a boy subservient to adult authority, having to follow the rules no matter what, being overseen, guided and verbally chastised standing in shortened grey shorts by men who are my adult authority figures as a boy of nine or ten who are younger in bone years.

I am more conscious of my emotional age finding my level returned just a boy and yet in such a trying uncertain situation more comfortable  for just doing what grown ups tell me.

Clean up in aisle four

While I get better I thought I would post some thoughts around a subject that's been a matter of controversy ever since the internet has been a thing from the earliest IBB's to modern social media, moderation.

All sites have rules usually set out somewhere prominent that take in two important elements, the terms of reference and standards the person running it has set AND that of whoever is hosting it plus the latter can and does wag the tail of the former.

No host accepting you=no site (Unless you self host)

When it comes to rules about the terms of reference of the site, they should say what it is about, what sorts of posts are considered acceptable and examples of what is not by content and the use of any and all images.

For instance mine has limits on the mention of c.p. and a no images of rule because that would put into Adult Content territory which our host doesn't accept. End of.  We do accept talking about childhood.

On the other hand ASB.NET does allow c.p. but has a no mention, depiction or suggestion of anything that may be seen as or about a child even your own childhood which is at least in part a host restriction.

Every so often you will have a person push the boundaries of your site either by content such as posting material contrary to the rules or posting material that does not fit within what the person who started the thread intended and belongs elsewhere.

You can move posts and message, which is a preference of mine, delete the posts as off topic or otherwise against the rules in the latter sending a warning to say nay more and you may be banned.

Personally I am pro inform,monitor and deal with the posts but this may not work with the kind of person who just feels the forum is for and about their posts, thinking their ought to be higher authorities  they should be able to appeal to.

The internet is not like that, you join a site seeing what it is about and it's rules and a Mod's word is the last on the topic.

Likewise you have members who want to leave they may of change their interests or taken offence at something or other and before you know it it's "I want to remove my account" or "Please remove my posts" instructions you're getting.

Deleting accounts is difficult as you tend to find several days later the individual wants to rejoin but by that point hard deleting accounts means they can't get back to where they were.

Removing posts is a minefield that I have strong views on from moderating a large site for a period.

The problem with removing an individual person's post is that often they reference and are referenced by other peoples posts who have not asked for their posts to be removed that may of taken them good time to type to be removed.

I believing in respect them in the moderation process and so may may amend a post with a [Mod note....] inserting to explain what was in the other person's removed post the person referred to unless the content was unacceptable.

The other person's posts will be removed if agreed the at time but because of the complications it takes time, MY TIME, I will add to do this properly.

I don't apologize for NOT removing threads which may of been started by the one who wants her or his posts removing but other people have posted on it because simply those other people haven't consent to losing posts AND the topic is valid.

Do not go whining to me that I should of removed the whole thread just because your post is no longer the opening one. You are a guest at the forum and not bigger than it.

If you do come back you can always repost what it was then.

Harvest break week thoughts

After tomorrow what was my Junior School breaks up for the Harvest break for just over a week a ritual that was punctuated by Harvest Festival that usually meant learning a reading, the whole Juniors practising the hymns, the Minister or Vicar giving a talk about harvest and thanksgiving and a collection by us with help from our parents of food to help the most needy in our community.

It's probably apt then that I spoke for a bit this weekend with Karl who was one of my boyhood friends at Junior School and, knowing me, is one of many boys and girls of that era here who respect me for what I made of my life given the stack of cards I had, doing things that many of them didn't.

We spoke with the natural ease of boys together many decades on that reminds you of that bond and those shared values you had and as the week progresses there is every probability I will see todays boys of the age we were who curiously enough are just the current generation version of us and exchange a few words with as they play and I enjoy what has become this lockdown my playtime too.

Boyhood is a link across the generations.

*based upon a ide from the old TSB and the wordpress back up.

Past childhood into new adult-childhood

In some ways this post is a complementary post a post a few years back on the regular blog really because reading is a part of my regression, a getting back to my natural child-like state that puts me in Little Space as such as it is about maintaining my limited ability to read and from that to learn about new things and new words.

Sometimes people argue about  you can have parts in your Little Space that are not of the era you were brought up in as if they are not emotionally an authentic part of you so that if say you were brought up in say the nineteen fifties, you cannot have plushies or have say books from other eras.

In my regressed world you can add some things into it so say action figures can be complemented by say a Teddies or Dinosaur plushie because it's function and utility to is the same, you play with it, it comforts you as hold and hug it as the inner child you are.

We didn't have computers then just typewriter's and diaries but they are in our new childhood not just for publishing and printing but for playing games and reading about things and our hallway telephone is often now a mobile phone that fits in our shorts pocket.

In much the same way to read say the books of Jacqueline Wilson is a part of understanding a part of contemporary childhood with the objects and experiences our age in it, that can aid me understand more of this age I'm travelling through as the hybrid adult-child I am.

The core though is very much routed in era I was brought up in not least the extent to which the stories I read or were read to me reflected the social norms around us even though things were and did change over time and in that context re-writing them so much of the social structure is missing but the dialogue sounds dated even for those of us who lived through the nineteen seventies and eighties just muddles it all up.

One might as well say for arguments sake have " Noddy goes to school" re-written by (insert editors) based on a story by Enid Blyton  as miss out the whole section when in the class room a slipper is hanging by the chalkboard and when a child is naughty, is instructed to fetch it but hesitates, Noddy (trying to be obliging and not realizing what it symbolizes) says "I'll fetch it for you Miss!" because that was just how it was like in the first year of Infant school where we got a few spanks in front of the class as we all learned school discipline as a class.

Such things were and are part of the authentic emotional sense of the inner-child me tapping into my experiences and to part of how we were brought up and part of Caregiver to little re-parenting.
Consider this quote:
 
"Big-Ears the goblin was always on the look-out for anything he could take. Sometimes it was an apple off a barrow, or off somebody's tree. Sometimes it was a biscuit from the counter of Mr. Butter the grocer's and sometimes a few flowers from a garden.

He was too clever to be found out, which was a pity, because a good spanking would have done him a lot of good, and might have stopped his bad ways. But nobody ever spanked him or locked him up for a night, so Big-Ears grew worse and worse. "

 It's from the "Hi Feather-tail!" Noddy story in Enid Blyton's Sunshine collection where clearly we are talking about teaching Big-Ears right from wrong from an early age in they way that was the norm then. No 'but they have (insert) syndrome so they can't help it and there is an implicit idea that it's the adults who are to work on managing your behaviour so you learn to however difficult it may be. You learn social limits, not be exempted from them.

It is very relevant because truthfully I had the same traits as Big-Ears, was pretty good at not being found out so my behaviour had gotten worse and worse in my hybrid adult-child life and why it is spanking has been put back into it, to re-parent me in the way we were expected to so so adult-child me learns to conform.

Or take the following exchange from Claudine at St Clare's one of six novels in the St. Clares girls boarding school series Enid wrote:

"If I wasn't in the fourth form I'd give you the hardest spanking you've ever had in your life, Angela. A good spanking would be the best thing you could have."

"Nobody has ever laid a finger on me in my life."
The first person speaking is Carlotta, the wild ex circus girl who is a Prefect and that is Angela's  retort.
 This like the other quote has now been removed from current editions on sale  but it rings very true in that Prefects and Head Girls and Boys did have that delegated authority with one threatening me with quite a spanking if I was caught smoking in school.

It also had to be said, it wasn't just them that did, so did teachers.

That was the kind of thing that was not so much the core plot but very much in the background of those stories I loved by Enid Blyton such as the girls boarding school  Malory Towers, St. Claire's series and referenced in the Famous Five.

For being there you got more of a feeling of how each character felt, empathizing with them in their situations that you also knew of that either wholesale deletion of a paragraph or  replacing the word with a say scolding doesn't work because expecting a scolding feels different than say expecting a spanking.

What happens is therefore more believable for being set with the social expectations and sanctions of that very era where pretty much everything else is at odds with Twenty-first century  Britain anyway.
It is in the form of novels, a depiction of the world that in the past I was brought up in so in their attempt to render a depiction of the past in terms that are seen as 'right on' so-called 'politically correct' is in so may ways a tampering with our recollection not just of these texts and how they they were a part of our lives but also of our recollection of the world as it was as that child around seven to thirteen as we lived it.

Grown ups are more than entitled to debate the rights and wrongs of our era (although a return to that era's values and sanctions is helping me no end) but in airbrushing the world we knew, they are not simply disrespecting us who loved reading these books at the time, enjoying re-reading them later in life, they fail to give a basis to explain to newer young readers the difference between now and then, muddling up the past.

The battle of the Scouting Blogs

It's been a cold and pretty wet weekend as we went out of September and dropped in many ways into October which has seen more activity on my own forum which is good to know as it's getting on for about two years old now.

This week I do wish to talk a bit about what has seemed to me to be a battle of blogs around scouting that started around 2018 when there were on Tumblr a number such as Neckerchief's which was about uniformed youth organizations that used the neckerchief and, a mainly german centred one and particularly roverscout1love.

Given some of the issues I was having on Tumblr with one account (TSB 2) terminated, I decided to make a blog centred around Scouting as I had found myself on Tumblr blogging more and more on the topic and at the same time decided to make a long form extended version here on Blogger.

As usual, often tumblr users do blog each others posts, sometimes and in my case often adding detail and commentary on an image and so it was that I did use some of roverscout1love's and in time mine it had to be said was quite a popular one for its comments and fresh content.

Little did I realize that when for some reason that tumblr of his got terminated without any good reason, it was going to get a lot tougher as seeing he'd returned as roverscoutandy that a discrete inquiry privately as to that account being his was to lead to him blocking all of my tumblrs from it and anyone who who reblogged his content.

This on top of the reduction due to termination of an number of scouting blogs was starting to affect my blog which was when I decided to originate more of my own image content to the point of using my own pictures and put in more about the "me" bit on scouting to make it stand out which it did until inexplicably every tumblr account including the one with that one was terminated. I have my suspicions about how that came to be but they're staying under my hat.

That was why it was it remained on blogger and continues to run charting not just the past in scouting, the movement today but also my own scouting having quite a following.

I've always tried to make mine different, not being content to just plonk a picture as if to say just pictures of scouting were enough when a number including his don't have any other detail.

His has not been updated since July 4th while mine is three times a week with substantial entries, mine has fresh content including the odd essay, his has pictures.

To me it shows an approach in blogging regardless of platform that is about adding and making an entry distinct that shows your personality counts.

Whatever the real issue was with him regarding me, my blog stands out.

Mirror images

It's very much the autumn here which you can tell by both the start of the falling leaves, the soft orangy sun casting on to trees and grass and like on a morning like today it's a bit chilly when you wake up which is something I well remember from my school days.

Like one minute it is almost like summer as we play footie during recess, a number of us stripping down even to shorts to play - in truth we'd had then under our trousers  to save time changing - before changing back for the second set of periods of the morning

Photo credit: badger44grammar44

Like him (H) who in this recent picture from his latest tumblr, I too wear grey shorts and traditional turn over socks throughout the year and in a good number of ways he's been very much an influence on me giving a clear idea of how a modern schoolboy routed in the past might be cos unlike some ASB's I'm not just about nostalgia or replicating exactly that past I am that mindset today and am to an extent informed by modern culture as much as he sees himself as a traditional schoolboy.

You might say we're mirror images and he's one boy I can look in the eye and know he and I are on the same page.

Talking about being LB/ASB online

 

This week I will devote a bit time about talking about some of the restrictions on content that apply to ASB.net and how they contrast to my own forum The Uniformed Regressors Spot  and in saying that from the outset I will say I respect and follow ASB.nets right to its own rules and follow them.

The first thing to say is on ASB you are informed you are not to reference anything that happened to you under the age of 21 that was real and even if just referring to as a historical fact.

Let's start with that age-21. In the UK whatever our opinions might be you are regarded in law as an adult at 18 and won't finish university until around 20 to 21 years of age so not only can you not refer to your own boyhood that clearly has a lot to do with being ASB, your university life can't even though you were an adult at the time.

This clearly is bought in from the Adult Content end which is fundamentally the difference between it and mine being strongly regressive or re-enactively but effectively stops discussion of why you are ASB/LB and the return to how you were as a boy.

It limits discussion down to uniforms although another restriction is that although you can post pictures of actual whole school uniforms being worn, you cannot state which school it is.

Let me put it another way: a uniform is distinctive  and may even feature a logo so anyone who knows their uniforms would know and it it is possible you may of attended it, so what is it that's being gained here especially as the site content isn't visible unless you are logged in?

Personally I take the view the uniform having been obtained, what you do by way of posting photos of you in it is very much up to you, no law has been broken so unless you do something stupid like pose outside of that establishment while in session that's it.

The only other things you can talk about is hobbies but again subject to that whole no reference to anything you did under the age of 21 so I can't say I owned a locomotive or explored something at the age of 9 or Corporal Punishment although again my being spanked at the age of 9 can't be mentioned in any detail at all so we get "how do I look in this uniform" and My latest caning with pictures.

I've no issue with people who want to do that but I prefer to talk about ASB life and for a good number of us it is about boyhood pasts, does include regression/re-enactment and that's what you can't do there.

My place doesn't accept accounts and pictures of corporal punishment because that's one thing the host would see as Adult Content although a brief mention of having or having had it is accepted apart from finding once you get a lot of talk around that - and it's starting to creep in all ready - you start to lose the other part.

We do accept talking about your boyhood because it is what made you who you are and is integral to being LB/ASB revisiting either as pure regression or re-enactment and for some of us those years have had an effect on our lives.

It can be therapeutic. 

We also do allow hobbies and interests to be discussed so long as they are 'safe for work' and many do link to our boyhood pasts.

It's not in anyway competition for ASB but is a complementary place where those thing ASB doesn't permit may be discussed

Restoration of a Tumblr

 

One thing I have done recently is reestablish the OlderBoyGreyShorts tumblr not as it was as some of that might cause issues with their wokish very broad definitions on "hate speech" and the like whereas on here I have a freer hand to express personal convictions.

I did partially rewrite the old Do Not Interact (if) so it didn't come over as 'hateful' put just saying what sorts of interactions I don't accept so stupid  stuff like sissification and kink  are plainly not wanted. 

TSB 2 could of been revived  but the concept just is no longer relevant with the original dead and buried tied in with issues around Tumblr functionality, OlderBoyGreyShorts was a real thing which elements on here touched on which was it was an attempt get past the first four months posts on TSB where I was all over the place.

It started with the premise that was the exploration of my past in that period had taught me I was really very much all boy and that in most respects I was stereotypical masculine and the odd difference didn't alter a thing and so was very much a masculine adult boy blog and that I personally reject anything 'girly'.

TSB in its current form has taken a boys travelogue with regression form simply because of the issues around very frequent blogging of images of boyhood such as boys at play or school mean that accounts soon get removed so it has to be kept limited unlike my blogs here.

There is a Pure Age Regression blog but many communities tend to expect you to blog in support of every part of the LGBTQ community and some parts of the current trans debate are things I can't support some of which are informed by personal experiences so I can't push 'hard' for traditional masculine boys regression on it.

The advantage around OlderBoyGreyShorts is while like all the Tumblrs one has to watch the amount of boyhood images you post, I can direct that at that whole notion of being a masculine adult boy tying into past boyhood play and very much "real boy" boys regression that is strongly of the traditional level.

We start on the basis sex is NOT a social construct and that while people have the right to be themselves that gender identity is a real thing linked to your sex and that boys love being and expressing there masculine selves.

The best thing for a boy is to be one, functioning fully in society as one and adult boys regression is about being that boy learning to accept and develop that identity sharing in the culture doing what you did back then.

Thus it ignores the push on questioning identity and degendering spaces and embraces differences as a positive and complementary in maintaining the natural division of both sexes while supporting the right of individuals to be themselves within that.

The majority of people are very happy to be their own sex and to own their own gender with the roles that go with it.

Families may have changed but the traditional structure still is the ideal for raising boys and girls and that boys are happy emulating their fathers, brothers and uncles.

Recalling the summer outdoor play 2020

Way back in September 2017 almost to the day on the other blog, I wrote a little about what the summer hols felt like as that boy, off from school for around 6 to 8 weeks where we'd be let loose for a period before returning to school.

That for most of us meant moving up a form or year group in September if not transfer to another school such as a high school so you could say that ritual was a pretty important one in our lives.

That was our time to explore our surroundings with mates, discover new places and things and play for hours or at least until our Mum's called us in for tea.

It was also the time that they, because in our era the best we got was a say, put us in t shirts and games shorts in part cos it was easier for them to wash and also because they recognized we needed to get as much sunlight on our bodies regulated by applications of suncream on our bodies to be healthy.

This for me it was different because I spent my time taken back in time to that routine and what is more I had shorts that were much shorter than any I had worn since then on just like I did then being new old stock 80's shorts.

I felt very different because while I always wore shorts they had tended to be the baggy Bermuda sort when not tailored school type ones.

I felt a lot healthier for being out in them getting my thigh's downwards well tanned  rather than looking very white and having those adventures again made me feel very much that boy all over again.

I really don't need longs or long shorts to be me.

A reminder not to be forgotten

“Look at this carefully, Christopher.  From now on, this applies to you.  Your mother has hired me as your tutor for this very reason, and I intend to ensure that she is not disappointed.  You may think that you are too big for a sore backside when you misbehave or do not perform academically, but be assured that you most certainly are not.  From now on, when necessary, you will be subject to the cane.  Now pop into the bathroom and put on your school uniform.  Your first lesson begins in fifteen minutes, and you WILL begin applying yourself."
Original from ThwacktonHouse (R.I.P)

There are times when I could imagine this applying in my current life and with the return of school this week after the summer hols  those distant days came back into my minds notice.

End of Summer Review

Last post of August here on the Boy Talk so I'm feeling more reflective  which is what most of this blog will be plus things to do with this last week.

It's not been the best of starts to the week  suffering from a migraine that started  in the early hours of Monday and had not shifted yesterday either so not much happened short of staying in bed with my pj's on.

I'ma little better today but remain very groggy unfortunately.

First off I have been taking stock of my large music and video based collection, pruning it of duplicates and of things like box sets that you might only watch once in seven years and for the reminder of the time they just sit around gathering dust.

While its true compared to their older forms such as VHS tape or Eight track tapes they are slimmer it still doesn't a lot before it gets into sizable piles growing ever skyward! There is a limit to just how many of these things you can keep.

In general my general behaviour and attitudes have been pretty good although between next doors antics and that there's been enough provocation to set me off going by my past which shows I am maturing.

If I'm getting to the point of risky attitudes and the like, then I need a spanking to pull me back and I'd sooner that happens.

A good friend has been spending time off work exploring and will be returning by the time they read this as they messaged me Sunday during a gap which is nice but I'm glad in a way that they're not messaging me all that time because it's important for them as it is for me to learn to switch off, spend time with those that care for them while they're away and enjoy the time at the places they go.

Of course I miss them, truthfully I can think few people in my life I ever missed not being around to spend time with because they've taught a lot about life, is a person I care for deeply and has taught me things about myself even but in odd sort of way we have grown up together and are growing up as adult middles living the same sort of life.

That way of life is the one I feel best suits my actual needs helping me make the most of life with my disability centred limitations but at the same time helping me mature to a point that matches my emotional age and intelligence.

Up with Rules!

I was reading a piece on popular CGLRE regression site around around rules and punishments in a non-sexual relationship which raised a few eyebrows with me to the point I decided I could not reblog that on Tumblr simply because it isn't where I am at.

Unlike them I disagree entirely with the proposition rules don't work and detesting the very nature of punishments. 

They seem to feel it's just kink or power grabbing thing to say a little needs rules and instead feel say a bedtime should be seen as a guidance, something you to do and if you do not then you should bear the consequence of being too tired to function, of missing out on a planned activity.

I would agree consequences have a place in the scheme of things but when you are like that, you are placing a need on a Caregiver to keep an eye on you, you may cause them to missing going someplace possibly with others  with you that may be hard to reschedule if at all.

They seem to think all punishments arise from anger with you rather than disappointment or concern with how you acted or failed to exercise responsibility and from that argue that to act from fear of punishment is a bad thing.

The point is it should cause you to think about how you acted affected what happened, the rubbish that wasn't taken out that built up, the poor marks from not working in class that meant you let yourself and others down and so on.

Now what those punishments should be in the context of non sexual cglre age regression lead Caregiver/little relationships ought to be discussed and reviewed frequently to the agreement of all nor should that be the sole focus of such discussions as things such as establishing aim to work on when it comes to independence, gaining maturity within your limits and helping out ought to be in there too.

It may not include physical punishments such as spanking although it is something I gladly accept but could include loss of privileges, use of natural consequences and so on.

The point is to try to help you be the best you can and to fit in with everyday norms so you can have as full a life as possible as that adult  little boy or girl  and to understand how your actions effect not only you but others. 

Disability and childhood

One thing that really used to bug me as a boy growing up disabled is we were often invisible in the media with only Vision On really showing disability positively which perhaps was appropriate as that was a show aimed for and around Deaf People.

The Literary world was just as bad at the time reinforcing the idea we were just angelic objects requiring compassion and your cash rather than boys and girls who had disabilities.

This was one book that at least tried to portray physical disability as a boy positively showing how children when encouraged can adapt play, which is our social life to take into account the need of everyone in settings that should be rightly free from grown ups.

That's because all of us those of us who are disabled and those of you who are not need to learn to handle this as part our lives by ourselves and even to understand how we may treat others who we might rely on has consequences too.

A culture of entitlement on our part is no better than one of thing we're somebody else's problem on yours.

*Inspired by a tumblr post of July 2019 sadly no longer with us.

Reclaiming space

This week as we are about to enter another month and ASB Mark 2 goes fully open after a short period of beta invites which I was pleased to have had at the outset I do return to one function of the original ASB which was the extent to which it gave more a much need confidence boost around being ASB and a Boy learning to be myself in the circle of others, part of the pack.

That was at a time of much personal turmoil and saw me moving from just wearing grey shorts with everyday wear to moving over to a very much a fully uniformed ASB from the traditional socks and underwear to school shirts and tie as a regular thing indoors and out and especially more with friends.

Increasingly I moved away from circles that had much to do with that turmoil and anything I wore around them to the point in many respects I no longer recognize that person I was in 2017 and 18.

As we passed through last year to what with the impact of Covid on our lives and movements was the highlight of February's week of boyish exploration, scouting and train spotting and journeys one thing I started to feel was at least on me, my shorts didn't really feel as if they were shorts with being shorter when it comes to my height than a good number of teen boys.

In many respects I am a just below teen LB to whom the actual experience of being ten or eleven in the last school year where short trousers were school uniform was different and with the relaunch of ASB and discussion at my own forum and Misterpoll, I have decided to break with the shorts I had.

Apart from being not so well finished they were not lined in the way those I wore as a boy wore and equally those I wore then were Short Trousers finished as but shorter than trousers.

I have come to the conclusion that like a good number of LB/ASB's to wear shorts like and in the same way as that boy who could well of been me around twelve or thirteen from now on because they feel right projecting me as that LB of my era apart from feeling better on me.

I am now wearing shorts that do show more of my thighs that with my long proper turn over socks and garters do expose more of my skin to fresh air and sun and feel more comfortable.

They are the shorts and socks I wore as a boy confident to have his inside leg taken up at least four inches from where it was and feeling the better for it.

Going back is going to be the going forward from now on.

On relationships and life

This wet week would of been a time I'd of been away so I have been thinking a little about what I get from that not least in the light of conversations at ASB and also my own forum.

Relationships not least family ones have  played a negative part in my upbringing from distancing, not willing to get close to me or to encourage me to get closer, being more overly affectionate as well as a sense of suspicious  between family members that just corroded any meaningful sense of trust and security I ever had.

Living in a world where you always watched your back, where telephone conversations were bugged, people lurked behind doors listening in  and mail read took its toll on me even to the point I was writing or drawing stuff about it in my teens on correspondence and never kept a formal diary in case it was read which it would.

That's one of differences now cos I do but it's more online journalling it may be such as with my main blog an account of a day out or interests related or more about my moods and emotions cos it helps me understanding them and helps to have some record I can refer to.

One of the things that has altered for me now is how it is I am expected to co-operate and behave with other people and that's been a thing that's talked about here so when I was away I was expected to help with things such as setting the table, washing up and generally helping out.

I am also expected now to help in the kitchen with making whatever we are going to eat even if some tasks may be done for me because I am expected to use my abilities to contribute whatever my disabilities may prevent.

If I do something wrong that I know I shouldn't like trying to cut things on the top of the sink where I'd either mark it or risk injuring myself which I did, then I was spanked there and then for it to ensure I learn from it which I was

What I longed for as an adult little boy is the simple love and affection of a forever mother and father figure who will help me feel loved, wanted and secure so I can grow.
Was that too much to ask?

Equally I have needed the space to deal with other episodes such as being being touched up by men in public spaces, frozen over, and effectively mute for so long over its effects on me.  

I think after thinking over how things have of been with time spent with one who does looks after me the answer has to be no because they are actively engaged in making me grow, feeling secure but at same time prepared to discipline me.

It was and is what I truly needed.

I have the right...

to Structure

Something I wish to talk about this week  is the role of Structure within LB/ASB life.

Something that isn't said enough is what enables you to let out your LB/ASB side is that somebody else handles the responsibilities so you need not concern yourself with them, that in other words you do not have to be your own adult (assuming you are fully capable of it).

That totally frees you up to be that adult child because you know, you cannot, will not even be allowed to fall because the "responsible adult" be they a Caregiver in a DD or DM/lb relationship or the Cglre  Dxlb or Mxlb x taking out the "Dominant" with the BDSM kink overtones and in effect making it more paternalistic "Daddy or Mummy" 2 (adult) little boy or a ASB school centred Teacher/Head Teacher steps in ensuring you do not come to any harm.

You are that little boy to them and you will allow them to address you as such.

They also by consent deal with handling any dangerous, rude or otherwise risky behaviour  on your part by stepping in and being the one who disciplines you whither or not it it involves any or no corporal punishment.

The point is, by providing that structure, they enable you to be just you, the adult little boy just being a boy knowing he'll be cared for, safe and not likely to get into situations that work against his needs.

Fur lined reflections

The last week while not exactly brilliant with the weather did bring about one major mood lifter.

Last Wednesday was the day this legally adult but eternal boy of ten went to the Barber's to have my first short back and sides in four and a bit months at which instance you could say my hair looks like a nuclear explosion with bits spouting out in all directions cos I just missed one trim by a few days and then everything got shut down.

I mean traditionally at any rate we do go on and on about our hair but when I struggle to get it beneath my cap without it wanting to fall of me head like, there's a bit of a problem, what? Better call a man out to fix it, lol!

I felt just like a little boy all over again in the barbers seat.

I got a bit wet yesterday going out for a walk for exercise and fresh air even though I had my red waterproof jacket over my sweater and shorter charcoal grey shorts which are almost the same but a smidgen longer than the shorts I wore in my last year at Junior School.


Looking in the mirror gives me that deja vu feeling and you know I just love being me cos I've always been who I was no matter how much people have tried to alter the wrapping to suit them, ultimately I'm my own sweet that's in it.

A boy like me needs to be put in four inch inside leg shorts just as he was back then.

* partly inspired by post 1,600 of TSB2

Bringing out the boy

I'm not generally into anything beyond uniform outside of play wear and my footie strip although with many actual schools being off for some days there's an argument for saying the LB/ASB can presently take his cue from events and alter his presentation a little as much as I'm for dress shirts and ties normally. 

Tailoring matters I think in this life and one aspect around tailoring that does make a difference I feel is when it comes to getting the right leg length for you because newer generations are taller than we were at their age and many suppliers are only supplying longer inside leg lengths.

What may be just above the knee on them is more on or even only just above the bottom of my knees almost into Knickerbocker  territory.

By taking up to six inches, while not standing out too much in public settings that on a grey pair redefines me as a boy, a little longer than what I wore then and presents me in a way I feel most comfortable  with.

I like how these shorts presents me as without making super obvious, they do not smooth away my maleness.

Being comfortable in your own skin matters.

That's the difference finding and having your inside leg on your shorts adjusted makes and it is so worth it.