We didn't question the rule that underpants were NOT to be worn under our shorts because that was also the case during our P.E. classes where, if the gym master suspected that we were wearing anything under our black gym shorts, we'd hear something like the following exchange:-
"You boy! Have you got anything on under your shorts?"
" N-n-n-o, Sir."
"Come here! Let's see."
The boy would then apprehesively approach him and stand nervously while the sadistic master pulled out the elasticated shorts waistband, peer down, and then, invariably, let it snap back cruelly onto the boy's body. We'd always hear the boy's "Ooooo-yah!" or "Ouch!" while the rest of the class would try to hide their sniggers. This ritual was quite funny for us other boys witnessing the scene, but for the 'victim' it was a brief moment of sharp pain, as well as being humiliating. It happened to me just the once, but that was enough to know how it felt. (To be fair to the master himself, nasty bugger though he was, he always pulled the boy's shorts out on the side before looking down - never, as far as I know, either front or back.) The punishment if ever a boy was found to be wearing underpants was, after removing them, being made to take off one of his gym shoes, made to lie stomach down over the vaulting horse, his shorts then pulled down, and then given six sharp, severe slaps on his bare backside with his shoe. I saw it done only twice in all my years at school, but that punishment was so humiliating in front of all the class, even without the pain, that one had to wonder why a boy would ever chance being caught. It was far less humiliating to remove the underpants before the gym class started so you wouldn't have to face the possibility of this happening.
Anyway, that's all leading up to my saying that, as we saw scouting, like P.E., as essentially to do with physical activities, as far as I know no questions were asked about this odd requirement at the time. It was only later that I found that the 'no underpants' rule in our Scout troop was not only unusual, it was practically unknown elsewhere. If I'd known about this before joining it might have saved me a lot of anguish as it turned out that this practice was to contribute to an excruciating sexual humiliation for me during Scout camp, at the vulnerable and impressionable age of 12 - and which may not have happened at all if underpants had been worn. Details of what happened will have to wait until a future blog. Actually it'll cover a number of them as the details of that fateful Summer camp will take some time to tell, and it would be unfair if any readers of my blog were not to be told ALL the details, painful as it is to me to relate it.
Now after many years of discreet enquiries and research, and failing to find any other scout troops which had this 'no underpants' rule I'd come to the conclusion that it must have been pretty well unique to my own Troop which was, incidentally, run by Catholic priests. One can make an assumption about the reason for this rule, after the secret activities of a significant number of priests have now been opened up to the world, that this was applied for their own shameful, randy purposes. But again to be fair, I never ever heard of any of these sorts of goings-on at any time when I was a pupil, though one can argue that if things actually were happening, would it have been widely known anyway?
I never heard of any scouts defying the rule, or even questioning it. What I do recall is a group of them, among the smutty laughs of boys their age, saying that you have to avoid farting as this will give rise to 'skid marks' inside the shorts. In fact they would sometimes laughingly refer to their khaki shorts as 'cacky shorts'. (In colloquial English, 'cack' is another word for 'shit'.)
Not wearing shorts did have one advantage, though. When a scout had a piss, instead of undoing the fly-buttons and then re-doing them up afterwards, he could just lift up the shorts leg and piss out from under it. This also lessened the chance of getting the shorts wet. Because of the light colour, any drops not properly shaken off would soak through the drill material and show up clearly on the outer surface of the shorts, causing amusement and teasing from other scouts, and huge embarrassment to the victim.
Now, right up to date. Only quite recently, someone contacted me by e-mail, having seen one of my previous postings on this topic on another site, and he assures me that the 'no underpants' rule was certainly not unique to my Scout Troop. This is very interesting indeed, and comes as quite a revelation after so many years. Currently, as he's busy, I'm awaiting precise details of what he knows. If there's something worth posting I'll do it here on my blogs. Meanwhile, this opens up the subject very tantalisingly. Watch this space!
