Ideal Teenage New Year

1st January 2010



Driving a car full of teenagers to the pub on Old Years Night, I listened to the conversation feeling privileged to be allowed this transient peep into their world.

'Yes, but she's middle class' said one

'How's that' said the fella

'Well, her Mum makes chutney so she must be!' sounded the justification.

Enlightening, I thought.
Enlightening to how these young people view the society we make them live in and where they think their place is within it. Moreover, how accepting they are of it all - or not - I listened as the discussion progressed. But, this was the biggest party night of the year and there were no other sincere thoughts than having a pretty good time - legally this year.
The call came for their 'taxi' just before 2am. By the time we'd crawled back up the valley through eight inches of snow and ice they had sobered up enough to cook and eat almost everything in the fridge that could be cooked and eaten without putting any effort into its preparation.
Around 5am the house was quiet. Home safe and sound. Phew!
After lunch, that is lunchtime on my timeline, around 1pm, there were scuffles from the room above the kitchen meaning that they were probably waking up and in need of food. I knocked quietly and asked how their heads were, 'Fine, absolutely fine, pity you hadn't been there last night, you could fill in the blanks for us. Bit hungry though...'.