Did you ever happen to see someone to put out or put in a removable brace or retainer, rubberbands or even headgear?

Retainers and removables devices, several times, headgear, I only saw once, from far away, a kid who was wearing it in public... casualy going to a big ortodontic clinic.

I have never worn retainers for real but I had always wanted them. I was only ever interested in removables and having all of the plastic.
When I finally had retainers made it was a huge thrill to go away and wear them full time.
To start with I would only take them out to clean them when no one was watching but on a driving and camping trip, I went to the washrooms in the morning after an overnight stop and forgot to take them out first.
There was a row of sinks and I was the only one there so I took my top plate out and put it on the sink while I cleaned my teeth. Just as I was going to go on to brush the plate with toothpaste, someone else came in and came to the sink next to me. I can still remember the buzz it gave me as I made it look perfectly normal. I carried on and cleaned the plate and then put it back in.
I could feel the eyes on me but I just decided that we were unlikely to ever meet again so there was no chance of any problems or awkward questions.

At school, one of my friends had a retainer. He would always take it out before playing sport. I was envious!

One time, I was at an airport and I suddenly realised that a boy nearby was playing with an appliance in his mouth and every time he wanted to talk to his parents he took it out, then put it back in again.
It was the first time I had seen an activator like the one I now have. (Its in my avatar pic).