Just reading a topic on this forum relating to Kids playing with ball. with neighbours objecting!
Brought back a few memories it has. Just coming up to retirement age myself!!!
Bit of a rogue in my youth as I recall...In my mitigation tho!!! they where rough times on the old council estates, in my hometown of Sheffield.
Can anyone remember getting a scutch of the local bobby for being cheeky to folks. apple scromping. playing football. smashing windows playing cricket....etc.etc.
Then when the local bobby spoke with my parents, I got another scutch of parents...!!!!
Remember one occasion. Been out with pals around 12/13 years old estate kids. Scromping apples in an old local park orchard. Local bobby caught 4/5 of us Phooooooow. Thought it was end of the world getting caught. Local bobby took us to the edge of the orchard, told us to drop our shorts and pushed us one by one into the nettle bushes. Boy did that sting.
Don't think it would happen in this day and age, however no lasting harm done back in the day.
Made all the kids I grew up with a lot more respectful to the law than these days.
local bobby used to be seen all day everyday patrolling around on his walking beat.
Cannot remember the last time I saw a walking bobby in my area, must be at least the last 20 odd years.
I've rarely seen a 'bobby' here. Even during lockdown, the only ones I saw were in ASDA buying sandwiches. Maybe once a year a police car will drive through the village.
When I moved to Hampshire, I would occasionally see a cop on a 'Noddy bike'. This was a Velocette LE and because it was felt unsafe for the rider to salute, they nodded to acknowledge a superior officer.
The village where I lived is on the A3 from London to Portsmouth.
Outside the local brewery, the road divided - one continuing to Pompey and the other to various villages and Hayling Island. On summer weekends (before the A3M bypass was constructed) there was a bobby on points duty at the junction controlling the traffic heading for the coast.
On the occasions that I worked on weekends, it was nigh impossible to get home by the main road, so it meant taking roundabout routes through housing estates.
On Sundays, there would have been nose-to-tail cars at this point, with a bobby controlling the traffic.
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
Coppers on noddy bikes now that does ring a bell. Those things were really quiet for a motor bike and they would sneak up on you. Had a clip round the ear many a time from the local copper when I was a lad. Never see cops these day except going at about 1,000 mph in a car, all lights and sirens!
My road ended at a railway line and there was a footpath at the end alongside the railway leading to a footbridge over the line and another alley leading to the next street. Our local copper had a habit of lurking by the footbridge to catch us riding our bikes up the alley. Always made us get off and walk. Now people regularly cycle on footpaths and the police ignore them.
We used to go miles away from home too, just us kids. I had a favourite place to go trainspotting, but it involved a mile walk, a short bus ride, then a 30 minute train journey. Often used to do it on a Saturday with a classmate, yet we were only 8 years old! I don't think my 11 year old grandson has ever been off his estate without a parent. None of the now grown up older ones ever did either.
Had my first car at 16, an ancient Reliant as you could drive a 3 wheeler at that age then. Couldn't wait to get mobile. I had to get a loan to buy it as it cost a whole £50! I did only earn £3/10s (£3.50) a week then though.
I had been scrumping and was reversing through a hawthorn hedge in order to avoid prickles, when I was kicked forward and then dragged backwards into the road.
The culprit was the local bobby who then held me by my ear and marched me, down the centre of the road, through the village for all to see.
My mother, alerted by all the commotion, came to our front gate, and took me, by the same already painful ear,into the house. She then had the gall to thank the policeman for bringing me home.
Who do I get to now apologise for the police brutality, damage to my self esteem, the institutional authoritarianism of my mother and the scar to my good standing in the community?
I had a mate who having fallen foul of the local coppers, decided to get his revenge. He filled a water pistol with brake fluid and at every possible opportunity, squirted their cars with it.
I remember one time a case of poetic justice against one copper. Like many other teenagers, I had a motorbike, and a group of us rode around together, went camping etc.. However, we kept being harassed by one motorcycle cop and we got to the stage where we thought we'd have to teach him a lesson.
As it happened, one evening he was chatting to some girls and decided to show off by bump starting his bike. Oh dear, he ran over his foot and the bike fell on top of him. Well, we tormented him mercilessly. He never told us how he managed to get the tyre marks off his boot, in fact he never spoke to us again.
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
My older brother was escorted home by local policeman, informing my Dad that my brother had been caught smoking. Dad politely thanked him for the information and shut the door. He was livid! not with my brother but with the policeman wasting his time on such a petty event. Only time we had seen a policeman in the area, and not since.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Memories of the GOOD / Bad old days..
via mobile 11/3/2022 at 6:56pm
