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Sanity -> RE: Young and daft.....for those who romanticise their youth.... (12/2/2007 8:47:16 AM)
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The legal age for going into a bar was 19 here (if you were a male) and it was the same for buying alcoholic beverages in stores, so we had several different plans that we used to get whatever we wanted. False ID cards, someone among us who looked old, certain stores that were loose on the rule... it was like a game. We'd steal it from a certain delivery truck until the driver caught us, and told us we'd have to leave him something good in the cab in return if we wanted him to leave the back unlocked while he was in the store (which we did).
Sometimes we'd head out to the boonies where there were large keggar parties by lakes or rivers with bonfires to see by and to gather around. The cops often showed up after everybody was good and drunk though, scattering everyone and stealing our beer, arresting certain ones... and so we were always trying to find better places - someone's home, or whatever.
American football or baseball was something that was occasionally played but we didn't organize to do it, games erupted spontaneously. We didn't even know that European football existed... the area was rural like I said, so it wasn't convenient to form regular teams except for school sports during only a part of the year.
I hitch-hiked around the USA while young, turned 16 in New Orleans. I joined the Army at 17 and went to Europe and Panama, a few other places. Got in a fight in Edinburgh once, some British soldiers were mad because the Scottish women really fell for us hard. We had pocket money, and American men have a habit of being more... romantic, getting on their knees and saying things like, baby baby, I love you baby, please give me a kiss while the Brits seemed to be a lot rougher with them than that. Or that's what seemed to be the case.
I read a lot, loved science fiction and just plain fiction, and history and science, read the news every day. I worked in a sheet metal shop when I was a teen, usually had money. Drank and otherwise partied far too much, even got addicted. Quit all that though, when I became a father later. I don't know what queensbury's rules are, and we were far from organized. We fought because of the testosterone, and had an unspoken code that wouldn't let us go too far, usually. That was a different time...
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ORIGINAL: NorthernGent
True enough, Sanity, lads will be lads anywhere.........most young lads in England are like that, it's our youth culture; although I'd have to say that brawling was never my style. I used to box between years 11 and 15, I liked my violence organised and all in the spirit of queensbury's rules!
Weekends were magic. About 15 of us going down the town on a Friday night to the pubs and a club, most times we'd talk our way into ending up at some girls house....getting a taxi back at 9 in the morning, no sleep, running in the house picking up football boots and gear, straight off to play Saturday morning football....finish about 11.30....quick beer in the pub organising the rest of the day.....home, shower, changed and off to watch a professional football match.....band Saturday night, Sunday in the pub having a few beers....the landlord would put strippers on for us to keep us in the pub buying his beer :-), and throw in a Sunday roast for us, too. My parents didn't see me from Friday to Monday! You've got to be happy with that.....not a care in the world.
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