For those of you over 30 years of age :)

As with many things in life it is the negative aspects that get the headlines.The youth of today are mostly far better behaved than those of 50 yeas ago.It only takes small numbers with an eye for seeking publicity to give an entirely incorrect perception.

I agree, my natural son is at Uni, he hasn’t got a bad bone in his body, everyone loves him, he’s never been a problem, apart from some dope smoking incidents that he at least was prepared to admit and talk about without any prompting. All his mates and associates are fantastic, friendly, lovely kids. Even some of the bad guys that were around when he was younger have always been approachable and we’ve remained good pals, it’s all down to attitude on both sides.
Now I’m an old git with a young partner, she’s 34 and I’m 56, her son is 13, in theory I could be his grandad, but fortunatley, he doesn’t see it that way and we are right good old mates.
He’s far older than his years and a right Goth, but so are all his mates, and a real good bunch they are too.
I’ve been very involved with kids for the last 20 years, I used to be a Scout leader, but this is where the buck stops.
The kids coming up into scouts 5 years ago were awfull, all they wanted to do was play football, no interest in anything else.
In the end me and my mate packed it in, mind you, a few Health and Safety issues involving these W##### put an end to it all, we were’nt prepared to be sued by a load of rebrobate, middle class parents who couldn’t understand that their kids were’nt perfect, being hauled up into tribunals by these so called principled a#######s was not much fun.
Sad, I loved being involved with the scouts, and I really miss the adventures we used to have and I’m getting a bit twitchy, especially when it’s the 100th anniversary of scouting this year, take the p### if you like, there must be some decent scouts out there though.

As with many things in life it is the negative aspects that get the headlines.The youth of today are mostly far better behaved than those of 50 yeas ago.It only takes small numbers with an eye for seeking publicity to give an entirely incorrect perception.

I left home a long time ago..please tell me the Gallagher’s are not representative of youth in Britain today

The good news is they’re not. The bad news is that the current youth Britain tends to make the Gallaghers look sophisticated(almost):eek:

Youth? Noels approaching 40 believe it or not, anyway, I like their attitude, that’s what rock stars are all about, isn’t it.

Wrong Gallagher’s…right neck of the woods ..try Shameless!!

I left home a long time ago..please tell me the Gallagher’s are not representative of youth in Britain today

Youth? Noels approaching 40 believe it or not, anyway, I like their attitude, that’s what rock stars are all about, isn’t it.

I left home a long time ago..please tell me the Gallagher’s are not representative of youth in Britain today

Maybe the past wasn’t all sweetness and light but I still reckon we had it better than today’s kids do.

Ooh, I did a lovely further retort, but the computer said no and it’s out in the ether, lets try and remember it.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents and uncles with a great passion, and still do, what’s left of them, but I have to say that respect was well beaten into you, and this was fairly general, liberal parents were treated with disdain and suspiscion by all sides, kids as well as parents, not that there were many of them about.
Now my parents were not well off, but tried to do everything for us, it must have been a nightmare affording those days out and fantastic Christmas presents, but we were kept well in hand, to the extent that fear could take over, a cane was kept next to the gas cooker, it was never used, but the suggestion was always there.
In my case, this had the opposite affect, I wouldn’t say where I was going or what I had been up to, this attitude persists today, fortunately, my missus is well aware of it.
To quote an example.
Some gits had lit a fire in our favourite play area, Jacko’s Holler, a former, overgrown claypit.
My mate and I were well used to this, isolated the fire and saved the day, I returned home triumphant and smelling of smoke, but was given a good thrashing from my mother because of a minute burn on my jumper.
Worse than that, she got hold of my teacher the next day and we were dragged in front of the class, humiliated and threatened with prosecution, for doing nothing but help out.
Whats interesting is that the next time it happened, we went round to a mates house who was the only person with a phone, and who happened to have a liberal mum, she called the fire brigade, only to find that the fires were being deliberately lit by a gang from the railways, so we were once again threatened with prosecution, wasting time etc etc by the powers that be, except that she threatened them with legal action, not setting a good example to well intentioned kids etc.
After that, I never told any adults anything, and that just creates a back drop of suspicion on both sides.
It’s been interesting in latter years, revealing to my parents what my brother and I got up to, especially with regard to him, as they thought that the sun shone out of his backside, not, to me he was and remains the greatest older brother you could possibly have, though he reckons not to remember half of what he did, and you could write a book about that, hmmmmmm, sorry John.

To sum up, I have a son and stepson of 21 and 13, they have never been threatened parently, only talked to sensibly and openely, they live in the modern world for all it’s sins, but they are the most fantastic kids going, not only that, they really love each other too.

It’s not all roses in the past, live in the present please and work it out.

I’m a long way past 30, & I’ve never known a time without joyriders, though I noticed when I went to university (Aaah, those heady pre-Thatcher days of student grants! That you could actually live off! And afford beer!) in London that they were far more common in the East End than in rural Buckinghamshire. And I’d never seen a newsagents with steel shutters before.

Yes, I remember those days, and much further back, when trainers were called plimsolls and only available in black, when a foot of snow was a dissapointment, and there was only one TV channel that took a break between the end of kids telly and the later, adult stuff, like Charlie Drake.

I lived on the edge of a city, the countryside was a superb mix of agriculture and our beginning to decay industrial heritage, it was superb, feeding cows, building dens out of straw bales, fishing in the derelict canal, sliding down slagheaps on bits of corrugated iron, watching them detonate cliffs in the quarry then rummaging amongst the gelignite boxes hoping to find a stick left. I could go on, but it wasn’t all sweetness and light.

We used to get gangs of Teddy Boys, rampaging up the canal banks armed with air rifles and shooting at anything that moved, throwing their cans of Long Life beer all over the place.
We used to get constantly harangued by peaodophiles, which we were pretty wise to, but didn’t tell our parents about in case we were banned from going out.
After one particular incident, we did come clean, but the fat sweating constable that eventually arrived on his push bike after an hour didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
There was another gang that made porno movies in the woods, that tried to threaten us to keep away, but we knew the woods better than them and got some interesting and enlightening views, do couples really do that?
There were nasty battles between gangs from different housing estates, once resulting from some poor kid being tied to the railway lines and left.
There were always fires being lit out in the countryside, burning our play areas, however, if you reported it, the powers that be always treated us kids with great suspicion, so in the end it was never worth it, I got sick of being threatened with prosecution by a stream of fire chiefs and police inspectors, all for trying to help.
Do you want me to go on?

A perfect counter view to post #1. My upbringing was a mixture of both scenarios.

Yes, I remember those days, and much further back, when trainers were called plimsolls and only available in black, when a foot of snow was a dissapointment, and there was only one TV channel that took a break between the end of kids telly and the later, adult stuff, like Charlie Drake.

I lived on the edge of a city, the countryside was a superb mix of agriculture and our beginning to decay industrial heritage, it was superb, feeding cows, building dens out of straw bales, fishing in the derelict canal, sliding down slagheaps on bits of corrugated iron, watching them detonate cliffs in the quarry then rummaging amongst the gelignite boxes hoping to find a stick left. I could go on, but it wasn’t all sweetness and light.

We used to get gangs of Teddy Boys, rampaging up the canal banks armed with air rifles and shooting at anything that moved, throwing their cans of Long Life beer all over the place.
We used to get constantly harangued by peaodophiles, which we were pretty wise to, but didn’t tell our parents about in case we were banned from going out.
After one particular incident, we did come clean, but the fat sweating constable that eventually arrived on his push bike after an hour didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
There was another gang that made porno movies in the woods, that tried to threaten us to keep away, but we knew the woods better than them and got some interesting and enlightening views, do couples really do that?
There were nasty battles between gangs from different housing estates, once resulting from some poor kid being tied to the railway lines and left.
There were always fires being lit out in the countryside, burning our play areas, however, if you reported it, the powers that be always treated us kids with great suspicion, so in the end it was never worth it, I got sick of being threatened with prosecution by a stream of fire chiefs and police inspectors, all for trying to help.
Do you want me to go on?

I go back to when men wore suits and hats and women wore dresses..only women had long hair and wore earrings and you addressed adults as Sir or Mamm

I can add some more to the original concept of this thread.
Not just everyone knowing each other in one street, try being known to everyone in the village unless they have been resident for less than 3 years.
Parents considering it safe for their kids to play out of sight of the house – heck, my mates and I often played out of sight of anywhere in the village and our parents had no problem with it as long as we were home in timwe for meals. In fact they weren’t too bothered it we weren’t as they always knew we’d be home when we got hungry:D
Riding on the mudguard of a moving tractor or standing on the PTO cover.
Those were the days when life was fun and kids were allowed to actually have a childhood not be wrapped in cotton wool

yeah, SEGAs and Nintendoes were the exiting things that the cousins living in Cities had…:D

well im barely 23, and I recall doing most of those things (exept the ones tied to british culture solely, naturally)
Perhaps you are just living in the wrong country:confused: :confused:

Ya I must agree with you and I’m early 20’s. it is my view is that people living on a farm when they were young, like me, had a completly different childhood experienve than people living in the towns/citys. If we wanted to go to town it was a big trip. Also there was never a playstation in my house or a sega mega drive or the like. But yet we would go out in the morning and afternoon and only return for meals and medical attention:D If we wanted to climb a tree we had tens of choices and nettles were just something you put up with to get to the places which were fun.

well im barely 23, and I recall doing most of those things (exept the ones tied to british culture solely, naturally)
Perhaps you are just living in the wrong country:confused: :confused:

Sounds like a mid life crisis in progress but I agree! Let’s stick with planes!:)

That’s why this is in the general discussion section as no planes were hurt in this thread!!

No mid life crisis here I’m way past that event 😀

Just an interesting look on life in the past:p

A225HVY

Sounds like a mid life crisis in progress but I agree! Let’s stick with planes!:)