When i was a lad..

When i was a lad growing up in the north east i had my fair share of scrapes with the old bill..now i'm not proud of myself but hey it happened and thankfully i grew up and moved on.

Thinking about it and trying to make some kind of sense of what is going on in cities right now i feel i may have a valid point to put over here.

The violence of my era was mainly aimed at the police ,visiting football fans and the iron lady who seemed to be single handedly ripping our country and its hardworking communities apart..Racism was never an issue in middlesbrough or other areas in the north east where i had family living. and i happily mixed with pakistani and west indian lads and lasses at school and in my social life, whether it be playing or watching football or passing hours playing cricket in the park or street (something rarely seen these days)..yes there were fights..we were kids and kids do fight and fall out RIGHT.

Looking back we didn't have a lot in comparison to todays kids with their x-boxes laptops mobile phones and taste for the latest up to date fashion items..Those fashion items were way out of reach for most i mixed with..yes older ones had all the trendy gear but i know for a fact, most of it was robbed from shops on trips to away games or days out in newcastle or york.

I remember the pressures slowly filtering down to us and passed on to our parents..we wanted trainers not dunlop green flash plimsoles..we wanted kappa ski jackets...the list was becoming endless.

Right at the time of the above there was a massive wave of influence coming over the atlantic in the hip-hop breakdance rap street dance and house music scenes..To be part of this scene you had to have the gear and the tunes blasting out on a trendy ghetto blaster, complete with a square of lyno to fling yourself around on..NOT my thing but a good reference point for what i'm trying to say.

Yes america has saved our asses and backed us up in numerous ways helping to keep this country free and great..However i feel the influence of american culture has from the early 50's days of doo-wop, elvis then right through to todays mind numbing music and televisual feasts served up on cable and sky..Then of course theres the bain of my life and one of my pet hates FAST FOOD..yes i've tried it all and to be fair to it, it is edible but not the sort of shite i want on my plate on a daily basis.

The last thing i want to do is offend the brilliant american friends i've made via the internet and this is not aimed at you..BUT i'm afraid the influences your people created are destroying the very fabric of society and driving a wedge between teens and the rest of the population..its the teens that are our future and unless they cut free from the GHETTO GANGSTA type lifestyle they will only have one contribution to make..doing time for our gracious queen.

There are numerous factors causing kids and young adults to destroy steal and stick 2 fingers up at whats right at the moment..one of those factors is influence..lets hope as adults we are passing a good influence and shielding our kids from as much of this as we can, with constructive family lives, good diet and most importantly love shown from the heart not the wallet.