RE: being a child was it hard in brum did you get into trouble - 2

PJ I think if someone is going to be a bad guy, they will be a bad guy. It's just as easy for a bad guy to be influenced by a good guy. That's how criminals get to be reformed characters.
It's one thing running with the pack, but not everyone wants to be there for the kill. It's one thing having some excitement as a kid, it's another to ruin your life. You did well to keep out of it. SB

Your up bright and early SB, or were you sat up in bed, cup of coffee and your laptop.
I've never run with the pack, I'm more akin to the fox, I've been a bit cheeky at times and got my fingers burned and still have a lot to learn.
Changing the subject, I hear through the grape vine that you were rubbing shoulders with the Hi-Poloy at the big house in town.
SB for mayor.
PJ

I think living in the inner city areas of Birmingham we all knew people and had friends and relations who strayed from the straight and narrow. Lets face it was pretty hard not to. I knew people who went down the path of Approved School, Detention Centre, Borstal and then Prison.

Some of these unfortunates realised they were wasting their lives and settled down to living normal lives. They became model citizens, married and had children and led exemplary lives.

Sadly there were others that I saw from time to time that took the other route and have spent the whole of their lives in and out of various institutions. I never saw one of them who looked as if they had profited from their chosen way of life. In fact most of them looked broken men aged and haggard before their time.

Phil

Phil
I think that the path we take in life is driven partly by our parents and upbringing, education and so forth, Also by our own ambitions, then by our partners/close friends etc. Do we care if we let people down, does it matter if we hurt them. Some actually steal and physically hurt them anyway. Anyone who does that is capable of doing that anyway.
In a society fuelled more and more by drugs and drink, I think crime is bound to increase. When I was in the pub trade, we had a saying "When the beer is in the wits are out" That has never been more so than today I think.
Everyone used to moan about our licencing hours. These days when alcohol problems are so serious what do we do ? introduce all day drinking, and make the drink stronger, Brilliant. This at a time when more and more pubs have been closing. Some of these were really a mistake because some new pubs are actually opening.
The choice of pubs in the centre of Birmingham to get a lunchtime pint and a decent meal in a nice environment is very very limited, and and busy times very nearly impossible. Birmingham has done a lot to bring in visitors in recent years it's time for the catering trade to do their part. Give us some good safe pubs again There is money to be made and willing people to spend it if we had somewhere we could go to. SB

SB

Though I have never been a drinker in these less restricted licensing hours. I've always been able to get a drink at any hour. I have never been in any sort of trouble for any drink related offence other than a motoring offence.

My point is, I don't believe in restricting drinking hours. I think it leads to more problems when you have got the pubs emptying at the same time you get all the drunks on the street at the same time. I know I am looking at this with a different mentality as to todays problems but I can't see that it is greatly different today.

Years ago whilst holidaying on Jersey we got speaking to a local policeman about local crime and trouble. He said their worst problem was what they called holy hour. This was a period on a Sunday afternoon when all the pubs & bars closed. So for the period all the drunks were out on the streets looking for trouble.

Phil

Phil,
Alcohol abuse in all its forms at any time = trouble.
PJ

PJ

I abused alcohol all my life, and it certainly retaliated. But I never caused anybody trouble and I certainly never looked for it.

I don't think we can always blame the drink, I think that the drinkers mentality has a lot to do with it.

Phil

Phil,
I think we all drank to excess when young but like you I could hold my drink and I dodged any trouble that started to brew. There were many that booze opened the door to trouble and they grabbed it with both hands.
I have found if their not happy or settled people and they drink beyond their limit of sensible self control I have found its usually time to go.
I have a coloured view on the subject, I was exposed to a lot of bother through booze when young so perhaps I'm unconsciously biased
PJ

PJ

I have certainly seen people do things in drink that they would never do sober. There used to be a young Irish chap who occasionally came into our local. He was one of the nicest blokes you could ever wish to meet, quiet, calm and well mannered.

He could sit there have half a dozen pints of mild, bid you goodnight and toddle off home. Occasionally he would come in and be drinking whisky on those nights the room cleared because everyone knew that by the end of the night he would be fighting somebody.

Now the room didn't clear because they were scared of him, just the opposite it was because they liked him. It was for the same reason that he never got barred because we all asked the gaffer not to. We all knew that the next day he would be back apologising to everyone, and it didn't happen all that often.

It was just something that got into him when he drank whisky.

Phil

Yes Phil we had one of them in the Navigation Kings Norton, he was a gentleman Scotsman, one over the odds and he was a demon, I have seen him carried out by four brickies one to each limb with his face to the floor cursing as he went, next day he was Kenneth MacKeller again.
PJ

PJ
A Gentleman Scotsman, you say that as though the combination is unusual. SB

SB, There are quite a few Scottish Gentlemen, problem is they have been educated at Eaton and now swell the ranks of all political parties.
PJ

Well I'm half Scotch & half English, I'll leave you to decide which half is the gentleman. If either. I'll say this many of the Scot's that I have met have been wild & hairy. But every last one of them has been genuine, generous, and welcoming to a fault. As will tell you any visitor to Scotland.

Phil

Same here Phil, with the Scots what you see is what you get.
This is a bit off the beaten track but did you ever hear that the Scots are said to be one of the lost tribes of Israel, I'm not sure where that originated from but Gordon Brown was the bee's knee's when he was at number eleven looking after the Nations cash.
Patrick.

PJ

I have heard that rumour as well "God's chosen people"

Phil