An Evil Generation

[poliphilo]

I try to avoid getting into fruitless arguments, but when my mother-in-law started off about today's young people being "more evil" than earlier generations (hers for example) I couldn't stop myself  telling her she was talking crap. 

(I didn't say "crap" I said "rubbish". I censor myself around the old folks.)

I suppose the tiff made me feel better.

Afterwards Ailz and I were talking about kids with knives. There's a whole moral panic in progress in Britain right now about kids with knives. And we were saying, but hold on a moment, we used to carry knives too.

I'm talking about the fifties and  sixties. I had as privileged and sheltered an education as it's possible to imagine, but I carried a knife as a matter of course- A pen-knife; I used it for carving chunks out of desks and throwing at trees. And some of the meaner kids used theirs for purposes of intimidation.

Every schoolboy and many schoolgirls (Ailz for instance) carried penknives. Ailz says she used to play a hair-raising game called "split the kipper" which was all about trying not to stab oneself in the fingers.

I also owned a couple of sheath knives. If I wore them on the street- and I'm sure I did on occasion- passers-by would have simply assumed I was a boy scout out of uniform. 

It's all about perception. If the politicians and press barons back then had wanted to create a moral panic about alienated youth and terror in the playground they'd have had little difficulty finding  their evidence.

I had an air rifle too.

And then Ailz started reminiscing about her uncle George who- as a teddy-boy in the early 50s- not only carried a knife but wore razor blades sewn into his lapels.

Kids and blades-  they go together like peaches and cream, like motherhood and apple-pie.

My friend Rupert Head brought a sword to school. Lord Patrick Douglas Hamilton kept a pistol in his locker.

I could go on and on...

Comments

The youth of yesteryear

[methodius.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, the Teddy Boys.

Here we called them ducktails, from their hair styles, and yes, they did the kind of rough stuff I've been seeing on Sky News, and their elders used to complain, and now it's their contemporaries who complain about the youth of today.

I remember getting a phone call once, to go down to the city hall and protect Black Sash demonstrators who were being threatened by ducktails. The Black Sash were demonstrating against the Sabotage Bill, which provided for house arrest -- 90 day detention would not come till the following year.

Did Tony Blair call in the bovver boys to deal with protesters against his 90-day detention proposals?

Nah the juvenile delinquents of today are no worse than those of yesteryear, and probably no better either.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

And yet my friend Christine's 8 year old son Spencer was tossed out of school and not allowed to ride the bus for the rest of the academic year because he brought a pen knife - no bigger than four inches OPEN - to school.

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

What's so funny --or possibly disheartening-- is that my first thought was "knives? They're worried about knives?" I think if kids just went back to carrying knives to school instead of, you know,fully-loaded semi-automatic weapons, we'd think it idyllic.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

My dad always carried a pen knife. When he passed away I claimed his favorite for Manolo (my husband) who only leaves it home when we have to fly somewhere. It´s come in handy so often. My brother has always carried one, too. We´re all 50´s kids.

As a Girl Scout (Girl Guide) in the 50´s and 60´s I was *required* to have one.

It´s really sad what carrying a knife has come to represent these days.

[silveredmane.livejournal.com]

I *still* carry a knife in my pocket. I never go anywhere without it. It's a very handy tool that I use every day.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I carried jacks and a golf ball in a bag.

Can't imagine carrying a knife!

But I was in school ten years before you...the olden days, when we were all good...