Off Topic Sutcliffe

Must admitt I never had that feeling about Stuart Hall.

 

Another one I thought he was great on the radio. Real lover of life.
Read his autobiography years ago and it was really good.

 

Aye, much more freedom for child abusers to get away with it. Think borstal schools, boarding schools, 'special' schools, convents, dodgy priests, and so on. There was a lot of it about through the 60/70/80's.

 

Before that too

 

Probably since time began.

 

More freedom to go out and enjoy yourself as a youngster. Though those repressed Catholics could be dodgy.

 

I remember walking home from Albert Ave baths to Boulevard one evening in the 60's, I was probably about 13 or 14. Ten minutes after I'd got home there was a knock on the door and a couple of policemen were standing there. Had I noticed a middle-aged bloke following me home? I hadn't but that was the last time I was allowed to go swimming on my own.

 

So glad it stopped in the nineties and noughties.

 

I mentioned this on a topic previously. On my 14th birthday I went to see Manfred Mann, chatted a lass up, rolled in after 1am. My grandson was 14 this years, same month. He was sat in, as were all his mates, playing on their consoles. Not saying I would have been given that latitude in Hull or any other large city though. A couple of weeks after my 14th I rolled in after 2 am and woke my dad up. He informed me that as the concerts at Brid Spa finished at 11.45 then 12.30 was plenty of time to be home by. I studiously looked at him and rather languidly said father, we no longer live in Victorian times (I had just been reading Billy Liar). How he resisted the temptation to bat me one I don't know. It was only years later I found out my mother never went to sleep until she heard me come in and didn't say anything as she didn't want me and my dad arguing.
My dad did say (funny how fathers were wiser than you thought at the time) that I might moan about him but it would be interesting to see what I would be like when my kids were that age. He had a point.

 

You were lucky
Cheshire Ben was that ugly as a kid he had to buy his own sweets

 

I couldn't find any, but I did have a look to see if there were any pictures of a kid that looked like me in the company of Saville or Harris. My plan was to claim emotional damage, as they didn't abuse me.

 

That's the whole point, it didn't stop and it might never stop. I'm just responding to the 'it was so much better back then' narrative.

 

It was better for someone having the freedom to go out, enjoy themselves play and socialise. As I said, I would rather have been a teenager then than now.

 

Much like Peter Beardsley could never understand why Barry Bennell left him alone!

 

I don't think it was so much better then actually. It was a totally different childhood on lots of levels, more freedom, more feral, more dangerous, more bullying, less parenting, no technology etc. I'd say parenting is much better now, technology for kids is outstanding and it's less dangerous, but sport and stuff is probably too controlled compared to 20 a side in the park with your mates, yes jumpers for goalposts etc. Peer pressures are social media driven, it's all just totally different.

 

You think parenting is so much better now? Out of control gangs roaming about with no respect for anybody or anything suggest otherwise. A lot of them without a father in their lives. As for bullying I would say there is more now, just in different ways. Don't recall the number of kids committing suicide because of bullying back then,

 

Now most of them choose to stay in and 'play', 'socialise' & have every embarrassing moment posted online for posterity...
Pros and Cons of each era

 

They don't score as often either. Not in the right way, anyway.