The youth of yesterday

There are stories almost every day about “Youth Culture” and it has not really changed over the years as the subjects stay the same. When I was a teenager it was all about football violence and teenage pregnancy. Today it centres on stabbings, shootings and of course, teenage pregnancy but who is to blame?

I notice the difference in children who were allowed to grow up with a lack of discipline and parents who did not care their 12 year old was watching an over 18 gangster style film and they have a lot to answer for. Kids on the streets all seem fixated with this “Respect” issue yet rarely show any themselves.

Are our youth so starved of a rounded education that they all want to talk like they are from the ghetto? It drives me mad! I understand the phases that kids go through such as speaking with an American accent which I, for one, was certainly guilty of when I was younger, but if you’re from East London then there is no point trying to pretend to be from somewhere you are not.

I am very proud to be a Cockney Accented East Londoner and I take exception to those who mistakenly think I am from Essex. I however did not spend my teenage years hanging in the park with a bottle of cider. It’s not that I didn’t do it, I just had other things to do that I preferred.

When I was about 8 I joined Girl Guides and once a week we met up and done interesting stuff such as playing games that we had no idea were educational and we thought them fun! This lead to me joining St John Ambulance or “The Handbag Brigade” as my mates called it and I took a lot of stick for it but by the time I was 15 I held the rank of Sergeant and could teach abseiling, rafting and survival skills as well as First Aid.

We would spend weekends camping with other divisions so was great for meeting kids of my own age. I learnt many subjects from Archery to Rock Climbing in fact most of the things we did had nothing to do with First Aid! I remember the first Monday in school after a holiday and we would gather for Register in our Form Room, the teacher asked what we did for the holidays and most replied they had hung out at the park and I had to reply I had been camping in Derbyshire, shot a kids TV programme for ITV and learned how to do really good horror make up including missing fingers and gunshot wounds.

Funny enough it was probably the only time during my schooling, I was actually popular, well for about 5 minutes. I also covered First Aid Duty when we would turn up to public events and cover any First Aid issues but to be honest apart from the London Marathon we rarely treated anyone but it did mean we had best seats for a lot of events such as most of the London Theatre shows of the day and the Last Night of the Proms. My proudest moment was taking part in the Remembrance Service at the Royal Albert Hall which was televised.

My grandfather said he had never been so proud of me as I marched across the floor of the arena, I was so glad he saw me do it. I am still in touch with many of my friends from back in the day and we still reminisce about the trouble we used to get into like sneaking off to the local pub when we were suppose to be in bed, then getting caught and me nearly losing my stripes!

Due to my involvement with St John and Girl Guides I did not have time to get into trouble although I was a dab hand at “Knock Down Ginger”, “Runouts” and “British Bulldog” so not all my teenage years was spent as a do-gooder however I feel if more parents got their kids into these sort of activities then teenagers feel they have been catered for and there are things to do but if they do not get the proper structure, discipline and support from their parents then I cannot see any improvement in the near future. There are always alternatives but it is whether the teenager and parent alike understand this and act accordingly, is something I have yet to see.

Where did you hang out as a teenager?

Take Care People
Angie