Topic: | Re:Such a shame - Housing on Gunnersbury Park | |
Posted by: | Mick Brent | |
Date/Time: | 30/09/09 15:14:00 |
Unfortunately, most of the exciting and adventurous activities we got up to as pre-teen children would nowadays lead to us being criminalised as "feral" and "anti-social." We would ride old motorbikes round fields (with the farmer's permission but without crash helmets or personal accident/public liability insurance), we would climb trees, investigate birds nests, collect frogs, build camps, have large scale rock fights with other groups of kids, go scrumping for apples and pears (or criminal damage and theft as it would now be regarded). If we were caught doing anything causing a nuisance (playing "knock down ginger" or scrumping) the local bobby would clip us round the earhole and tell our parents, who would ground us and give us another clip. As a generation, we were strong, healthy and with a good grounding in what was acceptable and unacceptable. (For example, in our groups in private, we would swear like troopers, but never ever within the hearing of an adult). The kind of area which Sarah refers to is one of the very few areas where kids can do what kids have always done in relative safety. My personal view is that if we have to sacrifice a few old buildings to ensure the continuity of our green spaces, it is a sacrifice worth making. Of course, if local authorities confined themselves to providing essential frontline services and stopped trying to act as a second police force and an arm of the surveillance/nanny state, enough cash would be liberated to both renovate the buildings and maintain the green spaces. |