I came to realise later I was terribly insecure growing up, and my way of handling it was to become quite brazen, and became a bully in School. That often got me into trouble with the Teachers, but one thing they couldn't fault me on was my marks, I didn't realize it then but I had a very high I.Q. and school work came easy to me and I assumed others were just stupid. I was to learn others handled their insecurity by withdrawing into themselves and became very shy and introverted as a result.
We all had our problems and just handled them in different ways. I recall in Grammar School I was almost taken away and sent to a Reform School for 'delinquent' girls. I recall the meeting my parents and I had with this group of about 5 people, one a Police man, and someone from Social services and the others from the School board. I remember as it was one of the few times I saw my Dad in a Suit, Tie and sober, and Mother in her Sunday best dress, my Aunt was there as well as another woman who spoke on my behalf. The outcome was I was given a warning about my behaviour, and told if I didn't change my attitude I would be sent away.
Once my parents got me home mother gave me a sound thrashing on my arse, and for the longest time after I was not allowed to go out in the evenings after school, or on weekends. When she could not be home Father was made to stay with me and that cut into his drinking time, but I didn't really have to worry about him other than the fact he would tell mother if I tried to go out, and she would come down on me like a ton of bricks. Their warning worked, as I did 'tone down' my attitude and became better behaved as far as the school people were concerned.
I had always been used to getting my own way from an early age with my Aunt when it I didn't get what I wanted, would throw a temper tantrum, (cookies or staying up late or whatever). It worked with her but not my mother as she was as tough as nails, and all it would get me from her was a beating if I didn't quit. However I'd discovered my Aunt was different and I learned to manipulate her.
Still this grounding made me very bitter towards my parents, as well as the Teachers who now had the freedom to tell Mother about any infractions in school, fortunately I was getting close to when I could legally leave school and found a job as a waitress. Life improved for me now I was out of school. At first there were still some restrictions on my freedom at first, but that changed as when Mother went out and my Father wend back to his drinking their priorities changed.
My friends older sister Sue had moved away to the bigger city around the time of my leaving school and when she would come home for a visit would talk it up about how wonderful it was compared to our home town that started me thinking about leaving home too. So by the time I turned 19 I was ready to leave home. I wrote to Sue about my plans and she invited me to come and stay with her till I found a job so I could afford a room of my own.
Once there it wasn't long before I gave up my virginity and started shagging, and was quick to realise I could use sex to get what I wanted from men if I played my cards right, and for the most part it worked as I was quite attractive, another thing that made me stand out from the crowd was I liked giving blow jobs. That was something a lot of women didn't indulge in in those days compared to today. Soon I came to the attention of a flashy Teddy Boy, as gang members were called in the U.K. in those days, and he always seemed to have money and didn't mind spending it on me.
The only problem with that was he seemed to think I was his property and that didn't go down too well with me, so I broke up with him. We had a terrible argument in the dance hall one night over it, and we got into a fight and the police arrived and separated us, and after that I stayed away. One night walking home they were waiting for me, it was dark out and I was grabbed and dragged into some bushes in a park beaten and raped.
Sue was the only person I felt I could trust and again she took me in and let me stay with her till my bruises healed, and after I was able to move to another part of the city, where fortune smiled on my when I found that job in the decent restaurant I mentioned before. Dealing with a better class of people helped as I started to dress more decently, and be more social to people as it was in my interests for my job's sake. I found I became quite successful at it although I still harbored a grudge towards the better class who I was now catering to in my job, but found it to be in my interests to be polite and get along with people, (mostly for the tips).
Catherine was the biggest influence in my changing my attitude towards society as she was from the upper classes, by my standards rich and educated. She taught me so much and did much to help me diffuse my anger towards the rich, and helped me integrate into their society. I had been conditioned in a way by working as a waitress in a better class restaurant
Then came Marlene, the point I'm at in my narrative of my life with you, she was good, she was tolerant and through watching my behaviour with Catherine in the pub, where Catherine always bought the drinks, or go fetch me some cigarettes etc., then when we started to converse she began to, "feel me out" or perhaps started to "channel my natural talents" into what I would eventually become.
I can't explain why I liked her, I just did I think because she talked to me like an equal rather than talking down to me as Teachers often did with younger people. As you now know we started to socialize with each other, her and Ruth, Me and Catherine became a regular foursome. Also she didn't mind sharing a joint with us, something I never thought the upper classes would even think about. It was like she would open those windows or doors to let me have a look inside then observe my reaction, and/or question me on my feelings.
One night I received a phone call that was becoming quite regular from her, we chatted a while and she invited me to go to a pictures with her. I was puzzled by this and questioned her about it and she explained it was a private showing with some other friends, and she thought I might be interested in going. I told her we were, (I was also starting to make decisions for Catherine as well by this time) and Marlene said, "good" and told me there was an admission charge of five shillings each. I found this hard to believe and questioned this as it was more than three times the price of going to the regular pictures. She said these were private pictures and that I would find it 'interesting'.
Anyway she convinced me to go, and I didn't mind the price too much as Catherine would be paying anyway as she usually did for our, "recreation". It was arranged we would drive over to her house and pick her and Ruth up, so we could all go to this persons house to see these 'pictures', and to pick up a couple of bottles of wine to take with us, as there would also be socializing with other people Marlene wanted me to meet.
I was unaware, and it never entered my head that some people might like being abused, that they actually enjoyed pain and in some cases humiliation, and to actually deliberately say or do things to cause me to respond like I did. Intellectually I was very bright, but obviously lacked the knowledge to understand those things.