RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (Full Version)

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NorthernGent -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 8:48:44 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Darcyandthedark

Oh NG - this is going to age me but seriously - back in the day when I was 18 - I would never of had £30 (in old money) spare in the back of my pocket - not after rent, bills, and all the things that came with being an 'adult'.
 
the.dark.
 
p.s NG on edit -  I just read your above post, and I'm not trying to antagonise just being honest - hope you relaise that.  I was living in London and maybe it's just the North/South divide but £30 pound was a lot in 'those days' and I just wouldn't have had it spare.
 

 
You know us Northern lads, Dark, we're rolling around in the stuff.......bathing in money ;-)
 
All of my mates left school at 16, I was the only want who went to college. By the time they were 18, they'd served apprenticeships as sparkies, joiners, plumbers etc.....and some of the lads worked on the roads, so they'd travel down to the other end of the country on a Monday morning and come back on a Friday afternoon. Some of them were earning roughly 300 quid a week after tax....doing 14 hour shifts on the roads, sometimes working in the early hours of the morning. All of my mates had money, and I took a year out between college and university and worked doing pretty much anything. Plus, we all lived at home with our parents, and paid them about 10/20 quid board, so we had spare money - our sole objective was to enjoy ourselves, having our own homes wasn't on the agenda!

Plus, it wasn't about the money for us, it was about making sure all the lads were there so we could have the best laugh possible...if one of the lads was skint, he'd get his beer bought by the rest of us, and return the favour next time 'round. Mining communities are tight-knit, there's a lot more camaradrie than other parts of the country, and it was about being with your mates for us...who was earning the money to buy the beer and pay for the football meant nothing. I've got photos with my mates as 3 years olds at nursery school with dungarees on and milk dribbling down our chins, playing football at junior school, boxing together against other lads from other youth clubs, on holiday in Ibiza at 17, and in Berlin a year ago. We were, and still are a tight knit group, mates for life you'd say, so if someone was missing in the pub..it would be a quick phone call "where yer at, dick'ed?", "in the house, I'm skint"..."get yersel 'round, there's beer waiting for yer".

People did what it took to get the money to go to the football, drink, watch bands and chase women.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Darcyandthedark
 
That said I still got to go out and have a great time at Oscars (metal pub) and down the olde leather bottle.  I so never went to 'the cube' - it was too much a posers club.[;)]


'See, there you go, people do what it takes to chase their objectives. I was a proper poser at 18, you wouldn't have given me the time of day, Dark :-) We were all designer labelled up to the eyeballs, we all wanted to be seen to be the most stylish!



RCdc -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 9:00:45 AM)

Pffft.... I meant that it may be more expensive in London - lol... I don't remember paying less than a pound for a pint.[;)]
 
Ach but when in rome hey - It was situations like yourself - everyone chipped in and if someone was without then we all contributed.  Being a girl - it was to my advantage.
 
Darcy I believe, will like this thread - he is in the stages of writing his experiences of the Nottingham rock scene back in the day as a young man for his next book...[:D]  I'll let him know it's going on.
 
the.dark.



seeksfemslave -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 11:26:17 AM)

quote:

Sanity
I don't know what Queensbury's rules are....


Neither do most American heavy weight boxers, especially when up against a great Brit threat.
Don Cockell v Rocky Marciano who punched our Don when he was on the floor he did.
Henry Cooper v Mohammed Ali whose trainer Angelo Dundee pulled a flanker with an alleged split glove after 'enery knocked Ali out.
adding: as for biting somebody's ear off, thats so  non Queensbury

Queensbury actually " went after" Oscar Wilde if thats of any interest.
30 quid!!!! my first job payed 3 quid a week when a pint of beer was about one and tuppence.
3 pints and I was very unhappy and spewed my guts up.
Then I did my National Service and earned 23 bob a week. I was a real hero. You young 'uns dont know you are born.

Actually I've always been a miserable old sod.  Difficult to believe I know lol



Sanity -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 11:40:18 AM)

I had to box a fellow named Fudge in basic training once, due to the fact that he and I got in a scuffle and we were caught (almost immediately) by our drill sergeant. The platoon formed into an impromptu boxing ring and we went at it in the blazing Oklahoma July sun. At the end I was spent, but he was even more spent, and we were both just hunched over leaning on our knees... he couldn't even lift his head though. So I started rocking my right hand glove back and forth, with each pendulum swing I was managing to get my glove a little higher into the air and, when I was getting it good and high I began walking toward him. I got up to him and with the last pendulum swing aimed at his face I put everything I had into that last punch, and I went down from the exhaustion. I was out for at least a few seconds, but as I came around I was hearing the platoon chanting, "GET UP!!! GET UP!!!"

I looked around with one eye barely open and saw that Fudge was completely out of it, and I heard a friend of mine yell, "GET UP!!! IF YOU DON'T GET UP YOU'LL HAVE TO FIGHT HIM AGAIN TOMORROW!!!"

That registered in my mind like a three alarm fire, and so I fought hard to get to my feet, and so I was declared the winner. I heard later that Fudge had shit himself in the shower, but as much as I hated that guy I felt for him at that minute.

I've never wanted to box at all since then, that was horrible!

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave
Neither do most American heavy weight boxers, especially when up a gainst a great Brit threat.
Don Cockell v Rocky Marciano who punched our Don when he was on the floor he did.
Henry Cooper v Mohammed Ali whose trainer Angelo Dundee pulled a flanker with an alleged split glove after 'enery knocked Ali out.

Queensbury actually " went after" Oscar Wilde if thats of any interest.
30 quid!!!! my first job payed 3 quid a week and a pint of beer was about one and tuppence.
3 pints and I was very unhappy and spewed my guts up.

I've always been a miserable old sod.



seeksfemslave -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:06:40 PM)

Well I got "tricked" into entering the school novices boxing tournament.
When I tried to get out of it the bastard Gym teacher wouldnt let me so I knuckled down and became the 6 stone (84lb) novices champion.

I decided to retire undefeated, won 2 lost 0, because  I was worried about my looks.



LadyEllen -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:22:31 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: NorthernGent

It's a shame you view this thread as an opportunity to antagonise, E. Come on, leave that for the politics threads.



You can view it as antagonism if you like - I see it as more of an interesting observation since our experiences have such an effect on our political views.

E



NorthernGent -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:31:29 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

quote:

Where do you go to, then? 'Just a look around see new places etc?

I lived in Oregon, San Jose, Wyoming, Fresno, Merced, and traveled a bunch of other places before I had my wee one (18 to 21). I still love to travel a lot. It was not so much about where I was going, as much as it was just going somewhere new... I was always thrilled with seeing new things. Now my UM is almost an adult I have begun my to travel like that again... nothing like taking off and not knowing what is going to be there when you arrive? Did I mention I am a thrill seeker? It goes with my masochistic side...lol



'Totally agreed on the adventure part.....any pleasant surprises when you got to a new place?




Sanity -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:34:47 PM)

Hey, NG -

How many of your mates turned out similar to you, politically? Any turn out Conservative? And if so, do you still get along?



NorthernGent -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:35:06 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: camille65

Really it was all time wasted for me and I wish I could do that bit of my life over again. But only if I could know then what I know now!



Well, you know, Camille, no regrets is the best policy and it's a long old life...plenty of time to get where you're going!



NorthernGent -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:53:02 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity

Hey, NG -

How many of your mates turned out similar to you, politically? Any turn out Conservative? And if so, do you still get along?


None of my close friends are particularly interested in politics. At their core, though, they're pretty much all conservative, I reckon. They tend to take the "this is our country" line in response to immigration and that sort of thing, but I doubt any of them would ever consider joining the army, they just want to maintain their way of doing things and see immigration, liberalism etc as a threat to it. I'm used to it, my father has voted conservative all of his life.......basically because a) He was in the RAF and the conservatives always gave them a pay rise and b) He thinks tough on law on order is the best way forward.....which is interesting because my Grandad/his Dad was a nailed on socialist who despised Winston Churchill! My sister is also a nailed on conservative who resents paying tax for anything!



NorthernGent -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 12:58:29 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Darcyandthedark

Pffft.... I meant that it may be more expensive in London - lol... I don't remember paying less than a pound for a pint.[;)]
 

 
There must have been a workmen's club doing cheap ale? Those were the days eh......men in the bar, women stay put in the bingo end out 'the way ;-)



seeksfemslave -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 2:29:31 PM)

quote:

NorthernGent
... my father has voted conservative all of his life My sister is also a nailed on conservative who resents paying tax for anything!

So where did you go wrong NG.?

It doesn't matter much because right now 10:40 pm Sunday I am listening to some light swing music by Duke Ellington ....where did I put my dancing shoes.



NorthernGent -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 3:02:14 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave

So where did you go wrong NG.?

It doesn't matter much because right now 10:40 pm Sunday I am listening to some light swing music by Duke Ellington ....where did I put my dancing shoes.



I found god.

'You entertaining the ladies down there again, Seeks? A spot of music and dancing......what happens next, then?



Vendaval -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 4:27:23 PM)

Greetings NG,
 
Music, film, friends, men, my pets and working were my priorities as a younger lass. That and fancy garter belts, heels, stocking, hats, and gloves, etc.  [;)]
 
I also did my share of skinny dipping (naked swimming at night) and toilet papering friend's cars in high school.



SugarMyChurro -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 6:30:28 PM)

I'm going to go with the first fall of junior college as my time period. My girlfriend was 29 - she was a nurse with the face of a young Barbara Streisand and the body of Nastasia Kinski. Her one peculiarity was that she was missing her lowest rib bones all around - which gave her a slightly elongated Botticelli figure. I lived about 20 minutes away from Zuma and Malibu beach so we were permanently tan and smelling of cocoa butter. I had a private area in the home of my parents which gave me a private room, attached full bath, immediate access to the swimming pool and hot tub (both of which I had designed), and around the backyard access to the garage. I could come and go as I pleased, but Sunday dinner at home was semi-mandatory. I had a newish Fiat Spider 2000 convertible as my ride. I had various jobs working on cars when I was a kid - so the $60 dollars would have been mine because I earned it (but living at home with my P&M made things easier by far). I was never a drinker so my expendable money would have been spent on nights out with my gf or some music related event. I most often dressed like Adam Ant, although I could easily switch to a Rude Boy look depending on what was on the agenda. We shopped at Poseur, Flip, and Tiger Lily. Some friends owned the second hand shops Notorious and Get Dressed on Melrose. Madness played live at a clothing store in Westwood. The easiest way to get Rodney to leave a club was to go up and ask him where you could cop some heroin - he'd look around, and make a beeline for the exit. We had eagerly awaited the opportunity to buy tickets for Joy Division but Curtis' suicide made that wait last forever. Our consolation prize was TG that had recently released "Heathen Earth" and "Journey Through A Body." We ate a lot of Thai cuisine (Mee Krob!), but sushi was deemed a true aphrodisiac. No bullshit California rolls for us please, bring on the Ami Ebi and Uni! Windowpane and microdot could always smooth out the rough edges. When I was 18, I not only could but also had the desire to fuck forever.




stella41b -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 9:31:33 PM)

At 18ish?

I was a bank auxiliary nurse in a West London hospital - bank means working on different wards and departments. I played rugby at the time, and was strong and could sprint very fast (100m in just under 12 seconds) and so worked between the geriatrics, the orthopaedic wards, the Cardiac Care Unit and A and E. Home was a small room in a flatshare with a jazz freak and half-Chinese Liverpudlian in Willesden Green. On Saturdays I sold copies of Socialist Worker outside Willesden Green Underground station, I also went on CND and SWP marches and demonstrations - 'Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! Out! Out! Out!', Aldermaston, Greenham Common.

I was living a double life, in the 'closet', and had a Mistress who was in her 60's, an ex-Pro-Domme, lesbian, butch with a face similar to Jimmy Greaves. I was into music, rock music, jazz (it was forced on me by my flatmate and the half Chinese Liverpudlian who was also into jazz), was getting into reggae, two tone SKA, rocksteady.. and so on.

Weekends varied. I hated getting a late shift in A and E on the last Friday of the month because it meant blood, shit, vomit, threats, abuse, the occasional dead body, bereaved friend or family all sorts of emotions, feelings and thoughts, and sheer hard work.

I had a friend called Ken from Manchester, who nobody liked and who was a complete nutter. I remember finishing a shift at the hospital and meeting him at the pub. He'd just bought a new motorbike. I can't remember the make but he was dead chuffed about it. He offered me a ride home on it. He's sat there with a pint, and I asked him how many he'd drunk. 'Two' he replied. I accepted, assuming that nothing would happen. He only lived a quarter of a mile from the pub up by Willesden Junction.

I was wrong.

We got to the car park of the pub. He gave me a crash helmet and put one on himself, and we got on the motorbike. The pub in question was the Fisherman's Arms in Old Oak Lane, across the road from the pub was a row of terraced houses. You had to turn right or left into Old Oak Lane. I assumed Ken would turn left. He started the engine, revved up and we roared off.

Ken didn't turn.

I know there was broken glass, I fell onto some sort of table and suddenly had hot food in my face. A woman was screaming. I looked round to see Ken lying groaning on a sofa. Yes, we had crashed, and yes, we had crashed into a house and both gone through the window. The lady who was screaming at the time had previously been watching a television programme and was about to eat her dinner off a tray on her lap when suddenly (from her POV) a motorbike came at the house from the direction of the pub and two motorcyclists came crashing just as suddenly through her living room window.

It got worse. Much worse.

Two ambulances were called. I was being walloped by a newspaper by this woman now furious because this was the only house in the entire row with double glazing and it had been installed only a month or so before. Ken was lying there like a lemon just groaning that his head hurt and the man was trying to get his wife off me as I was trying to tell her I was the passenger. It took ten minutes for the ambulance crew to decide who was going to travel with who in which ambulance. In the end the lady was taken with Ken and I went with the husband.

Worse still.

The doctor who examined us at casualty in the hospital where I worked decided we both might have concussion or a suspected whiplash injury and decided to keep us in for observation. Not just my colleagues were surprised when I was wheeled in with Ken to the ward I had earlier that day been working in, but so too were the patients.

Worse still.

They put Ken in the next bed to me. We fell out with each other, but exchanged the odd word.

'Prick!'
'Tosser!'
'Idiot!'
'Wassock'
'Pillock'
'Durnch'
'Nomark'
'Dickhead'

There were others and sometimes short sentences were exchanged, but these words were choice Anglo-Saxon and would turn the colour of this thread blue.

Yes, you could have a good time on £30, if you stayed out of Ken's way.



LuckyAlbatross -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 9:40:19 PM)

Honestly at 18, an extra 15-30 would have been spent on either pizza for a dorm party or going to the movies.  Rarely it would mean a cinnmon bun from the co-op.



subfever -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 10:56:59 PM)

I worked part-time during all 4 years of high school, so I always had cash in my pocket. I paid for my own car and insurance on my 16th birthday, so I always had transportation too. Saturdays were typically date nights, but Friday nights were spent with my friends.

Back then, beer was only $1 to $2 a six-pack, depending on quality. Reefer sold for $15 an ounce almost everywhere in town. There was one fellow across the tracks who sold it for $12.50 an ounce, but you had to catch him right after a new score, or you'd be too late. We were too late more often than not.

The legal drinking age in Illinois at that time was 21 (lucky for me, the state temporarily lowered the age for beer and wine the year I turned 19). So during high school, reefer and other drugs were notably easier for us to obtain than booze. Neverthless we still managed to get booze more often than not. Sometimes an older sibling or cousin of someone in our inner circle would buy for us. Other times, we'd take turns standing out in front of the local liquor store, asking "cool looking" customers walking in to the store to buy for us. If all else failed, sometimes we'd call upon a particular neighborhood kid who was two years younger than our core group. He was a shoplifter. He'd go into a local grocery store and steal the booze for us. He typically charged us two or three bucks and then went on his own way. But every once in a while, he'd hang and drink the booze along with us. Since beer was too bulky for him to steal, he almost always stole a bottle of hard liquor. We really preferred beer, so this kid was our last resort ace-in-the-hole.

Yeah, it was all about drinking, smoking, getting high, music, partying, and hitting up on the girls back then.  



Lucylastic -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/3/2007 6:00:56 AM)

18....so many changes, from the sublime to the ridiculous.... working in a hardware shop, clubbin, monday nights, wed nights and friday nights, getting home at four and workin again at seven..spent six months living on the street (a bad time in my life) then started SRN training, living in a room in the nurses home,my door always open and coffee on. parties  or hangin out till the next morning, seems that all my food went on tights and clubbing.
Was working in the geriatric ward  where the first successful heart/ lung transplant was performed, oh that was so much excitement every day gettin an update on the gent.
Music in the clubs was still largely disco /punk/new wave depending on where you went. lots of partying for the least amount of money possible.
Later on, surgeries and not finishing my training, (which is my one regret in life) a long period of living on the street, then working at a number of jobs, mostly as an auxillilary nurse, for a temp agency, loved the work, hated the traveling too and from jobs. Lots of casual relationships one long term one, a group of very diverse friends who tended not to like one another, most living on the edges of "civilised" society. was exciting scary, wonderful and shitty, all depending on the circumstances.
Then... I met hubby..... all change, lol
I learned a lot of hard lessons the hard way, but I only regret not getting m y nursing registration. Looking back, I wouldnt romantisise it, certainly wouldnt wanna go thru it again. But yes I do have a lot of fond memories
Lucy



joanus -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/3/2007 6:40:39 AM)

Still being a "Young Lad" I subscribe to the James Dean Method, Live fast, Die Young, and leave a good looking corpes..

Just Kidding.

My Asperations are a little higher. Make scads of money and destroy anyone who tries to get in my way.



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