Reply With QuoteArsenal. This sounds crazy now but I was wearing my school scarf which they took as Man U colours.Originally Posted by blue lewj
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Who gave you the kicking?My Dad was forever telling me that he took a bike at 14 and cycled half way around France and Germany.
When I was 14 I lived in Kent. I went up to London with some school friends for Arsenal v Man U, against my mother's wishes. I remember ending up lying face down on a tube station platform taking a few kicks, and then taking a smack full in the face as I came out of the tube station. I arrived home with a black eye and a split lip. My mother almost beat me up again. That was 1974. At least times have changed!
I would say no.
Arsenal, Man United or another club's fans?
Arsenal. This sounds crazy now but I was wearing my school scarf which they took as Man U colours.
I'm not saying that I wouldn't take much persuading before I allowed a fourteen year old child of mine to go off to Blackpool to watch a game whether they were travelling by coach or train, but more that I think I could just about be persuaded to allow it based on my experiences at a similar age.I'm not suggesting you aren't telling the truth, just replying to your apparent dismissal of Mr Dandruff's post.
Your parents were probably like mine in that you let your kids out to play and whatever they got up to, within reason, was fair game and if it was a bit 'dodgy' then it was fine as long as we don't find out about it or the police didn't come knocking on the door.
Peoples' awareness of potential pitfalls are now far greater and I tend to agree with BD in that I think parents are much more vigilant, taking their kids to football training, getting lifts with their mate's dad or whatever.
Back then you did your own thing, just had to be back by x oclock.
Re the OP, an organised bus with their mates would probably be fine as far as I was concerned.
I might think twice about a train journey away to Millwall though
It's been claimed that it was only about beer and fags back in the sixties and early seventies. That's not true, I was no angel when I was growing up, but, by the same token, I had a strong sense of knowing what was right and wrong and didn't cross the line often - put it this way, my name would have been a long, long way down the list if the staff at Cantonian were looking for the culprit when it came to a particular fight or piece of vandalism.
However,, even then I had a rough idea of who'd be likely to help me out if I did ever want to get involved in the drugs scene. As a teenager, I believed the line that my parents spun me about "soft" drugs - they're fine in themselves, but it's what they might lead on to and this helped ensure that I never got into drugs in anything approaching a serious way (the fact that I never enjoyed the process of smoking probably helped in that regard as well. By my early twenties, I'd begun to question my parent's line, but, still, my sole experience of drugs came after I ate cannabis cake on two occasions - the first time I was unaware of what I was eating and the second time I tried it knowingly to see what effect it would have on me (the first time I was pissed and I wouldn't have known what I had eaten if I hadn't been told).
Nevertheless, despite me not being a drug taker, I was still being asked during my lunch break in work by strangers in the old Buccaneer pub in town whether I wanted to buy drugs on a couple of occasions and feeling like I was in the minority because I was not dropping acid tablets during visits to the Moon club on the Hayes. These events were happening about three or four years after my parents had let me go to London to watch those games in the early seventies. I can also remember being told by someone that he could get me heroin if I wanted it (I must have been about twenty then) - I chose not to believe them, but, as I never saw the person again after that, I suppose he might have been telling the truth.
My point is that, even for someone who might have been regarded as a goody two shoes by some, drugs were easily available back in the seventies (must admit I never knew of any cocaine users back then or where it could be got) - I'm hardly in a position to know for sure, but it seems to me that drugs have taken over from alcohol to a degree among the young these days which it could be argued is a good thing when it comes to the possibility of violence.
The more I think about it, the more I feel Divine Wright is right about how attitudes are shaped by a far more sensationalist media than it was when I was a teenager - attitudes have changed, but have the risks really got worse for, say a group of teenagers going to an away football game on a train? I'm not sure they have.
I was 15 when I was allowed to go on the train to my first away game. It was the 1991 FA Cup game against Swansea.
My parents were not football fans and clueless of the potential dangers. They thought it would be a good first away trip as it was a short train trip.
To say it was an eye opener to someone on their first away trip would be an understatement. Swansea was like the innards of hell that day. The double decker buses they put on to take the fans from the station to the ground had their windows smashed through. Missiles flying everywhere, fighting, looting.
To top it off, me and my friends got separated from the Cardiff fans on the walk back to the station and got lost in Swansea. We found a friendly looking couple of families with wives and kids to ask directions, who then promptly head butted me and laid into me on the floor.
On the train on the way home I remember people selling jewellery from the looted Ratners shop and someone taking a shit in the middle of the train carriage…
U
Yeah, when you’re 7
I had the same luck the day I wore my Harry Potter scarf around Leeds.
I'm not surprised, they think books are evil and reading is black magic.
If I lived my life through my mother's wishes I'd never have done anything.My Dad was forever telling me that he took a bike at 14 and cycled half way around France and Germany.
When I was 14 I lived in Kent. I went up to London with some school friends for Arsenal v Man U, against my mother's wishes. I remember ending up lying face down on a tube station platform taking a few kicks, and then taking a smack full in the face as I came out of the tube station. I arrived home with a black eye and a split lip. My mother almost beat me up again
I would say no.
Everything I wanted to do she based her opinions on her own experiences, so walking home alone after dark was a no no, going to Cardiff on the train at 12/13 was a no no . All things we did and felt comfortable doing back in the 90s. This is where I think some people parent wrong..
Not holding your kids back because of how you found life growing up...
This post isn't aimed at you by the way Pete just a rant I guess 🤣
People used to steal your trainers and expensive jackets back in them days I'm told... Heard all about 91. What a first away day 🤣
I’m not sure about the jackets and trainers thing at football. I recall stories about people getting mugged for the original Air Jordans in Cardiff but not at football. Not sure how frequent it was or a bit of an urban myth.
I certainly didn’t ever go to another game like that Swansea one but I wasn’t someone interested in aggro, although kind of enjoy a bit of a buzz and a sketchy walk from a train station. Most of my other away trips after that were around London and the South East as I went to uni in London. So had the joys of going to Barnet a few times, Fulham, Leighton Orient etc. I vaguely remember a few trips from Liverpool St station but can’t even remember the game or teams. Maybe it was where Brighton played when they weren’t in Brighton. I do remember an FA cup game in Reading’s old ground where the away end wasn’t far off what I remember at that Swansea game in 91 but not the same level of disorder in the town.
Things change. When I was 4, all the kids in our street were off around the block exploring the world on our 3-wheelers.
I know people that used to do it.
And scousers etc were definitely up to it.
Yeah definitely a better experience at the football now, although you get pissed up knobs it's generally a better all round experience.
I went up the mountain behind my house at about 9 was gone all day.. thought I'd reached the edge of the world
And that’s where things are so different… crime, violent or otherwise - might be down significantly compared to the 70s/80s/90s, when most of us grew up… but we were streetwise compared to todays youngsters, who spend their time indoors and online.
Have you heard of Strauss–Howe generational theory? I grew up with almost total freedom from a very young age, and I am shocked at how my nephew aged 9 has been brought up, he can't go anywhere alone where he can't see his house, so that's literally about 6 houses away!
That should read my nephew's kid aged 9.
This is true. I know because a neighbour kid in Ely stole my three-wheeler, and my mother had to go get it back.
Leighton Orient sounds so posh
14
My first ever job was at the tender age of 14 in Ely
I was a rear gunner on a milk float
I don't have a 14 y o ...he's 25 and can do what the feck he wants
I wouldn't trust my 16 year old to get public transport from her house to mine. I think she's responsible enough, but kids just don't get out there as much as years gone by, she'd be nervous the entire journey (couple of trains)
What did you decide in the end?
Mid 70s I was 13 and went with a mate and his older brother to Bristol Rovers, his brother was 18 as were all his mates, so I was in the company of several responsible adults.
All was good as we arrived at Eastville, until one of said, right lads were going on the Tote
I found out a little later that this wasn't to exchange scarfs an pendants 😁
No
If I had to make a list of moments in my life where I felt or was directly threatened with violence, I think it would all be in my late teens/twenties.....talking late nineties , early naughties. I also, used to drink and be around drunk people more often. I also spent my weekends in my Mamgu's house in Lansbury Park .......which really skews the results
At the same time, I think I probably feel more anxious now about violent crime than I did when I was younger....even though I haven't had any genuinely dodgy experiences for the last decade or so. I'm sure that wall-to-wall media has had a big effect on my perception of things. I don't think I ever really read the news when I was in my twenties, nor did I have the kind of access I have now. The first news event I can remember is probably 9/11.
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