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Dictionary: Toy.
1/a. A plaything esp. for a child.
2/a. A thing, esp. a gadget or instrument, regarded as
providing amusement or pleasure.
1/b. Trifle, amuse oneself esp. with a person's affections.
I've still got the toy I was given when I was born and in growing up found that other boys had the same toy that I had, and in the process of getting older, still played with our toys.
I never knew my father because he was in the army and was killed somewhere in Northern India while serving his country. I was born a month after he had left and so it was only my mother that looked after me until I was able to look after myself. Which was quite early considering that mom, when I was old enough, four years old, was looked after in a small crèche while she went to work in a munitions factory at the outbreak of what was known as "The Second World War".
I was taken there in the morning before she went to work and collected me in the early evening to take me home to feed, bathe and put me to bed, only having a Sunday to spend the whole day with me. I cannot say that I remember much of this, only one thing stands out clear was having to spend one night in a bomb shelter and was told later that I had cried so much that we never went into one again. We were lucky to be on the outskirt of London and so didn't have to suffer the bombing that the capital suffered.
It was a good thing that when I was five, I only had to be taken to school on that first day and from there on, went on my own and returned home well before mom came in from work.
As I grew older, I began to learn how to cook a meal so that she didn't have to worry about me being home alone and I think she appreciated having her dinner cooked for her. She had been heartbroken when she was informed that her husband had died in battle but still had me to remember him by and didn't marry again until I was sixteen.
I didn't like her choice and so stayed out of the house as much as possible, for I could never call him dad or father. I had left school at fifteen and found work as an errand boy and with this arrival of another man in the house, found a job for the evenings. This was in an hotel in the city and would start at mid-day until eight in the evening, travelling backwards and forwards by the underground train. I liked Saturdays, for they usually had functions there and so would do the extra hours until it finished and would then sleep in the cloakroom and work the Sunday morning until the afternoon, where I would then go to a cinema to watch whatever film was being shown before going home.
It was during this time that I leaned that even though the country would be stopping conscription into the army sometime in the future, I would still be liable to being called up when I was eighteen. Now I could volunteer to join either the army or navy before the time arrived of my eighteenth birthday or enter the Merchant Navy, though that would mean being in there for seven years as opposed to only two in the army. The Royal Navy being seven years too, but more restrictive than the Merchant Navy, so that was what I planned to do.
I got the necessary papers finally and it took some time to get my mom to sign them, even though she knew that by me going to sea I would soon be leaving home, but also didn't want me to join the army and maybe having to go out and fight like my father had, so she signed them.
Now with the man she had married and herself, always left home around seven thirty in the morning while I stayed in bed until they had gone before getting up and seeing to my own breakfast, not having to be at the hotel until mid-day, would always see what the postman dropped through our letterbox. The day finally came when there was one brown envelope from the government that I knew would contain the order for me to do my National Service. This was three months before I would be eighteen, and so I wrote on the envelope that the person this letter was for, no longer lived at this address and posted it back on my way the take the signed paperwork to the office where they would see me to joining the Merchant Navy.
As I was still only seventeen, I would have to attend a navy school, which was at Gravesend, and they would let me know by letter the date to attend there. It was to take a course of six weeks and on passing, would be allocated to a ship. It was a month before this letter arrived giving me the date to attend this school which was another four weeks later. This meant that I would then be eighteen by the time I finished at the school and would therefore not be classed as a boy rating. Oh, it was the catering department that I had applied for as opposed to being a deck hand for if I would be at sea in a winter time, it would be warmer being on the inside of the ship than out on deck.
In the meantime, another letter had come from the government asking mom where I might be contacted for my joining the army. She showed me this and didn't quite know what to say in reply. I told her to just say that I had since joined the Merchant Navy. So that cleared that problem.
I'd already given in my notice to the hotel that I would soon be leaving to join the navy and had a little party given me on my last day working there as I would on the following Monday have to report to the Gravesend school. Mom was in tears on that day when I left at six a.m., consoling her by saying that I would be back in six weeks time before having to finally go to sea.
I duly turned up at the school on time, following others with their suitcases and saw that it looked like a prison that we would be spending the next six weeks in. In fact, it had once been a prison. One for women. There were twenty of us that lined up once we were inside and with me being at least a foot taller than the others, was made the senior of half of the group with another tall boy being the senior of the other half. We were to keep control of the others during our stay there. What a dump. Ten of us in a small dismal, filthy room that had five double bunks for us to sleep in. It only had one window that was filthy so the light had to be on even when it was daylight outside.
It definitely seemed like a prison, being woken up in the morning by the officer in charge of us, making a racket in the room and shouting out, "Hands off cocks and hands on socks" every morning at five thirty. This would give us thirty minutes to fight at the washbasins, three of them, to wash and clean our teeth before breakfast at six. Seven o'clock we would be in a class to then be shown what was expected of us.
How to make a bed navy fashion, which wasn't far off how I had been making mine for quite a few years. How to lay a table for meals, the same here too and so on. The names of a ship's interior, The floor being the deck, the ceiling a deckhead, the walls being bulkheads and many other names used aboard. The pecking order of the officers and of the stripes on their shoulders and what we had to wear when doing a daily chore and the change when we were seeing to passengers.
It was bad at first but we all got used to it and we all did well with our final tests at what we had been taught, and I got a good report from the officer that had been teaching us, rating me as excellent and top of our class. On our last day at the school, I was told that because I would then be eighteen by the time it came for me to report to a ship, I would be rated as being a steward, and would inside a week or too, know what ship I was to join and where.
I think we were all relieved to be leaving this prison to return to our homes to await our letters. Mom was pleased to see me though I wasn't sure about the man who had married her. I think he was glad that I would soon be leaving for good, little did he know that they would be times when I had ship's leave to spend there.
Though he did give me a present on my birthday, me thinking at first that he was taking the piss when I saw that it was a bible. But then he showed me how to open the inside cover that would be the ideal place to keep any money I had for if things were to be stolen on board ship, a bible would be the last thing that would be taken, and he was right. For things did tend to suddenly disappear from our cabins when in port and yet my bible was left alone. So overall, it wasn't a bad little party we had to celebrate me now being regarded as a man.
It wouldn't be long before I learned how other men who not only played with their toys, but also what they did with them.
Mom had also bought me for my birthday, one of those sack like things that could carry your clothes and be tied at the top and a lock to seal the top. This was better than a suitcase to carry and found out just how good it was, for dressed in the uniform style we had to wear at the school and with this sack on my shoulder, I looked a proper seaman. It helped with me leaving home at six in the morning that I was due to join my first ship, it was easy to get a truck passing on the main road where I lived, a lift after sticking my thumb up in the direction I wanted to go. I was lucky too that he was heading to Tilbury where my ship was berthed, and so arrived well ahead of the scheduled time.
I was dropped off at the gate that I wanted, for the truck was going to a different dock, and asked the gate man where my ship was berthed. He told me and let me in for me to walk to where it was moored. It was the S.S. Shamrock, having wondered why it had been given that name, but had found out that it had been built in Belfast, so with that being in Ireland, it made sense. During the war it had been used as a troopship for the army to be taken wherever they were wanted during that war. But now it had been restored into being a passenger ship once again and this was to be its first trip again in peacetime.
Man, it did look big moored at its dock, many cables tying it to the wharf and had several gangways leading up to the ship's interior. The dock was also filled with different sized crates that would be later opened and the contents taken aboard. There was an officer standing at the bottom of the first one I came to, checking what was being carried aboard by crew members who had started work at eight o'clock and showed him my papers and he stopped a young man coming down to the dock, telling him to take me up to the saloon to sign in. The saloon was the name for the passenger's dining room, which was quite large I found out when I presented myself at a desk where the second steward was sitting.
Knowing what he was by the silver stripes on his shoulder, having learned the pecking order of those that ran the ship. That started off with the Captain, followed by the Chief Officer, then the Second, then third etc., who looked after everything to do with the deck crew. Then there was the Chief Engineer, second, third etc, again who looked after the running of the engine room. For the ships interior, it was the Staff Commander, then the Chief Steward, Second Steward who was the working boss who wore silver stripes, the others having gold braided stripes. The chef ran the galley, the name for where the food was cooked who had his own staff. Then the Head Waiter who was in charge of the dining room, him having a second in command as it were, the latter only having a single half stripe.
I duly gave over my papers and he turned a big book round to me and offered me a pen.
Sign here, er,' he looked at my papers again, Mark Blade,' that being my name.
`Yes sir,' I said as I then signed on the ship.
`You don't have to call me sir, just Second will do, though I'm really the Assistant Second Steward,' he said.
A.S.S.,' I said. That's ass.
Sharp as a razor eh. Well cut out the funny jokes,' he scowled and turned to were a couple of boys were sat. Jacobs! Take Razor Blade to the Shrine will you.'
This made me wonder if he was alright in the head, but found out that nearly everywhere had a nickname, and that included us in the catering department as was proved when Jacobs came over.
`Follow me Razor,' he said, me within those few minutes had been given my nickname. He told me over his shoulder that the cabin I was going to was called the Shrine because the person who's cabin it was had the nickname of Shirley with his surname being Temple. Hence the cabin being called the Shrine and him being known as Shirley, though this was also because he was gay and liked to be fucked as a woman.
I was led down what was known as the working alley that led to the crews quarters up in the bow of the ship. Up a companionway, stairs, and along to where I would be quartered, and banged on a cabin door and opened it and went inside with me behind him. There was a man laying down of an upper bunk, there being four bunks in this cabin, who leaned up on an elbow and looked down at us.
`Here's Razor Shirley. Fresh meat for you,' Jacobs said with a grin and then left me alone with Shirley who'd sat up and had swung his legs to hang down from his bunk. He held out his hand for me to shake which I did.
`Hello Razor. Welcome to the Shrine. How come you're called Razor?' he asked, looking down at me.
`The Second started that with my surname being Blade,' I told him, pulling my hand from his which he was still holding.
`Oh that's a good one. My surname is Temple and why I'm called Shirley,' he said with a smile.
I know. I've been told that already,' I said. Who else would be in this cabin?' I asked, dropping my bag down on the deck, eyeing the three other bunks.
There's Taffy, who has the other top bunk. He's Welsh. Then there's Jock who has the other lower bunk. He's a Scotsman. Your locker will be that lower one on the left,' pointing to the four tall cabinets up near the bulkhead. Your bunk will be the one under me.'
So I put my bag onto what was to be my sleeping place and emptied it, putting my jeans and piss jacket to one side and stowed the rest in my locker. I then changed out from my trousers and put on my jeans and jacket and sat down on the bunk.
`Why aren't you at work?' I asked. He leaned down to look at me.
`Waiting for the other two to turn up. Then the four of us will work together. They should be here soon. Well speak of the devil!' he cried as the door to the cabin opened and in came the other two.
Introductions were made before they filled their lockers and put on the same clothes that myself and Shirley were already wearing.
Right fellers,' Shirley said, swinging down to the deck. I found that those on the top bunks used one of the pipes at the deckhead to swing up and down to their bunks. Let's go and drag a lot of shit aboard.' We then trooped out of the cabin to make our way out of the ship to start carrying stuff inside.
`First trip Razor?' Taffy asked as we went along the working alley, to which I said yes.
Me and Jock, this is our second one and Shirley's third. We were all together on our last ship. It was a cruddy ship and so left to join this one,' he said, and then in a whisper. Watch out for Shirley. He likes sucking on cocks and being fucked.' I found out that night how another man plays with somebody else's toy.
We worked away, carrying goods aboard to take wherever we were told to dump it until five o'clock when the dockside suddenly became deserted of the dock workers. They were sticklers for going by the clock. We also packed up work and returned to our cabin where we all stripped off our clothes and I was shown where the showers were. So the four of us naked, went with our towels a short way to where the showers and toilets were, them being inboard on the ship.
I noticed that Shirley kept looking at me as I got under a shower, him being next to me at the other one, though I really should say that he was looking more at my toy.
`That's a nice piece of meat you've got there Razor,' he said as we soaked ourselves under the spraying water. This made me not only look down at my toy but also at what the other three had, and with them all being on the limp side, noticed that mine was bigger than theirs, and wondered if it would be the same when erect.
With us being clean and dry, we left with our towels wrapped round our waists to return to our cabin to get dressed and go off to the saloon to get our evening meal. This we had to collect in the galley and carry it out into the saloon to eat and found that it was just as good as what I used to have at home.
Having finished our dinner, we returned our plates to the place in the galley where there was one big machine for washing the dishes, being controlled by one of the galley staff before returning to our cabin. There, Taffy and Jock got changed as I sat down on my bunk.
`We're off to the pub, you coming Razor,' Jock asked when they were dressed.
Not tonight,' I said. 'I was up early this morning and I'm tired.' So they left, leaving just myself and Shirley in the cabin. I turned on the little bunk light and lay down with a book to read, one of which I had brought with me, for half an hour before getting up and getting undressed and into my bunk to carry on reading.
Shirley dropped down and went and turned off the main light before getting undressed himself and could help but see his toy hanging down as he used my bunk to stand on before climbing up onto his above me. After a little while, he leaned down and passed me a book, if it could be called that.
I bet you haven't seen one of these before,' he said. I picked it up in Port Said on my last trip.'
I took it from him and put my book to one side and say that this so called book had been badly stapled together and that the cover was entitled "Gay" and was a picture of two naked men kissing each other. He was right. I hadn't ever seen such a book as I turned the pages. They were all pictures of men together, playing and sucking on each other's toy. Not only doing that, but also sticking their toy up into the ass of another man. There must have been at least twenty pictures of men having sex together and my toy had risen up with just the first two pictures and began to play with my toy as I looked at them.
`Good ain't they,' Shirley said, leaning over and looking down at me, seeing me with the open pages in my left hand and my other hand down under the bed covers obviously playing with myself. I think I went a bit red in the face at him seeing and knowing that I was playing with my toy. He then swung down from his bunk, seeing that his toy was up and erect as he dropped down and knelt next to my bunk.
`Let me do that for you,' he said and was quick to pull down the cover to see that I had an erection which was still in my hand. Without waiting for a reply from me, pushed my hand off my toy and took it into his own and began to slowly move the silky skin up and down in a firm grasp. I was dumbfounded and yet for some reason, didn't stop him from rubbing my toy.