4. I Wanna Be Where The Boys Are – The Runaways 1977

I wanna be where the boys are
I wanna fight how the boys fight
I wanna love how the boys love
I wanna be where the boys are

 

‘Come on, let’s get in the car girls.’

Sometime around 1980 my Mum was ushering my sister and I into the car, on either side of our sleeping baby brother, in the hope that it would encourage Dad to get in the driver’s seat and take us all home. Our young family had dropped in on friends to drop off something-or-other. It was late on a Sunday afternoon and Mum wanted to get home to settle her kids in before another week of work, school and childcare. However, once there Dad had seen a new-second-hand car sitting in the driveway, so had gladly accepted an offer to have a look under the bonnet.

After waiting patiently in the backseat of the car for a few minutes my sister, Tarnya, and I became restless.

‘Whose car is that?’ Tarnya had asked in a bored and unconcerned tone, noting that it wasn’t either of the parents cars. In an equally bored and unconcerned tone Mum answered ‘It’s Gary’s. Ross and Wendy have bought it for Gary.’

Ross and Wendy had three children, Belinda, nineteen, Gary, seventeen and Tracy, fifteen. Belinda had been using her parent’s cars when they didn’t need them since she got her license more than two years ago. Gary, not being as motivated for the freedom of a driving license as his older sister, had only just passed his driving test more than six months after his seventeenth birthday.

With the bemusement and innocence - yes I was an innocent - of a five year old I asked, ‘Why did Ross and Wendy buy Gary a car, but not Belinda?’

Now faced with having to give her daughter an honest answer, but not wanting to let either Tarnya or I think that we were not as valued as our brother, or that we were not entitled to the same as him, all Mum could offer was ‘It’s different for boys.’

After thinking it over for a minute or two Tarnya and I asked in unison ‘Why’s it different for boys?’

As the question was uttered our dad swung the car door open and sat in the driver’s seat. Hearing our question he turned to our mum and asked, ‘What’s different for boys?’

We could see our mum shrug her shoulders as she said, ‘The girls want to know why it is that Ross and Wendy bought Gary a car, but they didn’t buy one for Belinda.’

‘Because they could only afford to buy one car, that’s why.’ Dad chipped in.

Again in unison, Tarnya and I looked across our sleeping baby brother and shrugged shoulders to demonstrate to each other that we did not understand what was different with having ‘Oh my God! A woman!’ with her own wheels.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJLFOBR0gE4