My lovely, lovely, lovely horse...
Oct. 1st, 2007 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaIf the papers are to be believed, the under-18s of this country are unregenerated ASBO-winning delinquents. This has never worried me particularly. Eve told Adam that the kids were not all right and would soon be turning to murder, thus setting a pattern for all eternity. History does not contain a single era where teenagers have been held up as a shining example. However, of late I've become worried. I now have incontrovertible evidence that it's time we started to panic.
Look:
If that's not shocking evidence of moral degeneracy in today's youth, I don't know what is.
This picture was taken on a rainy residential street in Reading. In the last week, I've seen the same scene (only sunnier) in Greenwich and in North London. Conkers just lying about on the ground.
This did not happen in my day. We were down in the park, throwing sticks up into the horse chestnut trees to get the conkers down. In August.
Which yes, wasn't a great idea, because the conkers were all pale and squashy and, come Autumn, there were none left to ripen. The odd rogue which had managed to stay on the tree and fall naturally to the pavement would have been snatched up the instant it was spotted.
What is going on ? Are all the kids at home playing Wii Conkas® or something ? Where will it all end ?
Look:
If that's not shocking evidence of moral degeneracy in today's youth, I don't know what is.
This picture was taken on a rainy residential street in Reading. In the last week, I've seen the same scene (only sunnier) in Greenwich and in North London. Conkers just lying about on the ground.
This did not happen in my day. We were down in the park, throwing sticks up into the horse chestnut trees to get the conkers down. In August.
Which yes, wasn't a great idea, because the conkers were all pale and squashy and, come Autumn, there were none left to ripen. The odd rogue which had managed to stay on the tree and fall naturally to the pavement would have been snatched up the instant it was spotted.
What is going on ? Are all the kids at home playing Wii Conkas® or something ? Where will it all end ?
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-02 11:44 am (UTC)Conkers were outlawed as folk were replacing the centre with a lump of grit/small stone and then varnishing them and placing on radiators in order to maximse 'hardness' and then the risk of string popping back would result in eye/conker collisions...surely you remember the news reports? THE DAILY MAIL had a field day!
Odd conker fact...do you know DEER (at least those on Richmond Park) can swallow them whole and pluck them out of the air if thrown in their direction? I vividly remember my Dad clearing our collection of 'lower rated' speicmens by feeding them to a deer who was very impressed by such a treat. It was like a dog jumping for chocolate..grabbed them out of the air and gulped them down- we could see the conker slide down its throat! As a park warden was watching us I may only presume this is a non detremental practice for deer and they enjoyed eating my conkers (dried in a huge glass sweet jar for a few months!)Weird huh?