I suppose you need a bit of background on me first, to set the scene as it were. My name is Sarah Matthews having married (can you believe it) Matthew Matthews some 10 years ago. To this day I can't believe anyone could give their son a name like that, but his parents - who are perfectly nice and sensible - didn't seem to think it was odd. Maybe it's me that's odd. My maiden name is Clarke, so when I'm relating experiences that happened before I met Matt you might find me or others referring to me as Sarah Clarke.
I was born and brought up in Northumberland - a windswept county in the North East of England at a time when lots of new housing estates were being built in villages and everyone with middle class pretensions would buy a newly built home on an development and move out of Newcastle or its suburbs in order to prove they were on their way up in life. It made for a lot of interesting times - people thrown together from different backgrounds and that. Anyway, I'm rambling and Matt is always telling me off for that so I better get on with it.
Today - in August 2008 - I'm 48, happily married, and have 2 smashing grown up sons from a previous long term relationship before I met Matt and two inherited stepdaughters in their late teens that came with hubby. I have a little part time job helping out in a friend's shop selling clothes to students and the like, and I'm generally considered the doting wife and mother.
I suppose I'd be described as matronly now - but back when I was a teenager I was slim and had a lot of attention from the boys. I didn't like the peasant look that was fashionable at the time; instead I preferred shorter skirts and tighter tops which might have explained some of the interest. A throwback to the 1960's my mum would say. I'm 5'5" tall and then I weighed a trim 110lbs or so and had quite perky 32b boobs. I wore my ash blonde hair quite long and like a lot of us then my look was a bit of a "Farrah Fawcett Do" with gallons of hairspray and the trademark flick backs.
Nowadays, and after 2 kids, I'm bigger all over and I'm ashamed to say I'm now 155lbs and wear a 38c bra. Unfortunately I haven't become 5'11" since 1978 so I'm overweight for my height. The events I'm going to tell you about here have shaped the rest of my life. Yes - I have secrets - many of them - but it's time some were shared.
My husband has no knowledge of these secrets and I'm counting on him being truthful when he tells me he doesn't have time to read things on the internet. If he is telling then truth then he should remain blissfully ignorant. I toyed with the idea of using a pseudonym and changing the locations to make it impossible for anyone to guess who I am, but I didn't like writing like that so I'm taking a risk and being open. Time will tell if I get caught out or not.
I'm starting my series of "confessions" with my first real sexual awakening - so I'm going back 30 years to my dim and distant past - when I was 18 and doing A levels in my last year in the sixth form at the local Grammar School . This all happened before I met David (my long term partner and father to my boys) in my last year at University. I'm not intending to make my stories here a strict chronological diary - I'm happy to jump forward and back in time as the mood demands - but to start off it seems right to begin at the beginning.
This is basically a true story but I've changed the names of the other participants (not mine) as I know for a fact that at least two of the people involved are still alive and well (or at least they were in July 2008) and I don't want to cause any fuss for anyone. This story deals with what happened one Friday evening in December 1978.
My best friend at that time was called Karen Dodson. We'd been friends since we were 8 and went to the same schools until we opted for different universities in 1979. Karen's mum and dad lived in one of the new developments in a small village next to the River Tyne and I'd always got on well with them. Her mum is Frances and her dad is Alec. Alec was always friendly β but never overly friendly if that's what you're wondering - and a nice man. He worked hard all week and then went off to the golf course at weekends. Frances could be quite overbearing at times so we always used to understand why he escaped to the golf course at every opportunity.
Frances was a typical "wannabe" middle class wife (not sure the word "wannabe" was used back then but it's quite an appropriate way to describe her) and she was from a working class area just outside of Newcastle. She'd worked hard (or at least had made Alec work hard) to obtain the middle class veneer of material trappings and was totally immersed in the "what would the neighbours say" mentality. She was always very concerned with how she looked - watching what she ate, going to keep fit class twice a week and with hair that was so black it could only have come from a bottle. I last saw her at the beginning of 2008 and she still had jet black hair even at the age of 75 so there's no doubt it was chemically assisted even then. Frances was always immaculately made up and you never saw her with a hair out of place. She was slightly taller than me - probably 5'6" or so and keeping the weight off nicely. I'd say that then she was probably about 120lbs with boobs smaller than mine - an A cup.
I knew she wore padded bras as we'd had a discussion about them previously when I was complaining I wanted bigger boobs and she told me her secret. I never saw her in jeans - always skirts and a nice blouse even at home. I liked her though - she was a pain sometimes about tidiness and that, but she was kind too and always chatted to me like I was an equal when I was there. I think it's fair to say we were all a little scared of her even if we did make jokes behind her back about her obsession with appearances.
Two houses along from Frances and Alec there was an older married couple, Bill and June Sanders. I say older - Frances would have been 45 then and June and Bill were early 50's so not much between them, but a hell of an age difference between them and me. Bill and June had not been able to have kids and so they treated Karen and her younger sister Julie as their own, and spoiled them rotten with gifts on birthdays etc. June was an elegant slim blonde who had the money to spend on the best clothes and makeup - she was always smart and looked very sophisticated. I think Frances was a little in awe of her and we laughed over how little time it used to take for Frances to buy something for her house if June had just acquired the same thing for hers. June was taller than Frances - probably 5'8" and with bigger boobs. She must have been a 34c.
Frances had a wide circle of friends - one of whom I knew quite well having gone out with her son Gerry for a while a few months previously. It was a typical early romance - I wanted someone to cherish me and eventually propose to me and he wanted sex. We broke up when I stuck to my guns about my definition of romance compared to his. Gerry's mum - well step-mum actually - was Vicky Price and was younger than Frances by about 10 years, so then she would have been 35. She was married to Bob Price who was quite good looking I always thought, probably better looking than Gerry in fact.
Vicky was a very attractive brunette with full lips and sexy green eyes, all framed by soft shoulder length curls. She was slightly overweight with big breasts and was definitely what you would call voluptuous. Carrying a few extra pounds suited her and she dressed to show off her assets. She was usually to be seen in tight tops and little skirts and lots of glossy lipstick. She was about my height at 5'4" and must have weighed 140lbs most of which seemed to have congregated in her boobs and bum. She was 38d and definitely didn't need a padded bra! From the way the lads our age talked about her when Gerry wasn't around it was clear she had many admirers. If we'd had the expression back then she would have definitely been a "MILF".
On the night this all happened I needed to get some books back that Karen had borrowed for an A level project - only problem was that Karen had gone out to a house party with her new boyfriend several miles away and wasn't expected back until Saturday morning as they were staying over. I decided to phone her home anyway hoping that if someone was in I could drop by and pick them up. I'd only passed my driving test a month before (at the third attempt) so I was taking every opportunity to borrow dad's car, and even though it was only a 10 minute drive I wanted the practice. Frances answered the phone and we chatted for a while as I explained what the problem was.
She said that of course I could come over and added that she was annoyed Karen hadn't given them back to me yet. She was the sort of woman who always let you know when she was annoyed about something (and lots of things seemed to annoy her) which may help explain why we'd always been a little scared of her.
She went on to explain that Alec was at a golf dinner and wouldn't be back until after 11pm and that Julie had gone to visit her Grandma for the weekend. She then said she was having some friends over for drinks and mentioned June and Vicky. I asked how Vicky was - I hadn't seen her since Gerry and I had split up and I had always enjoyed chatting to her when I visited Gerry. I'd even popped by a few times when he was at the football with his Dad for a cup of coffee and a chat.