h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sorry Pastey, but I can't see that 'children' in general are part of any group that could be considered in any way a minority? Apart from there maybe being less children around than adults in general??

Or did a load of people think I meant 'I try to kill poor children' because I mentioned council estates? If you aren't aware I LIVE ON A COUNCIL ESTATE AND HAVE DONE FOR 42 OF MY 44 YEARS, AND WAS A COUNCIL TENANT MYSELF FOR 20 YEARS OF MY LIFE. So there is no way I am discriminating against council estate people BECAUSE I AM ONE OF THEM.

And please Pastey, also tell me why you were able to post the reasons *here* yet no one had the courtesy to answer my email??

I've not posted any reasons the post was modded, other than well known generic stuff, ie it broke the house rules.

If you want specific answer, you'll have to wait for the mods to get around to it, they are volunteers doing it in their own spare time remember. Unlike when the site was at the BBC, we can't afford to pay people.

Didn't it used to be the case that entries were hidden 'awaiting moderation' while the moderation was being discussed with the Researcher, rather than the more final-sounding 'it broke the House Rules in some way'? I wish I could remember the actual wording of temporary and permanent removal.

The Ripley skins do, Pliny doesn't know the difference yet.

It was along the lines of children playing out is not something that's in the past, no matter what the internet tries to tell us. I see children playing out on the street a lot, especially on council estates.

Then I made my comment about trying to mow them down which is apparently what caused offence.

It's ridiculous, not sure who these 'multiple complainers' are but they need to get a life and complain about something that's actually real.

Of course it was a bloody joke, these kids are children of my friends and family, kids that went to school with my son, and the kids of people me and my brothers went to school with.

Ah yes, I remember now

I won't say what I think about those who were offended by the post in case they, er, get offended. By the way, another council estate kid here.

Hello

We don't have councils, but I grew up feral.

We kids ran loose until "the street lights come on". I think our parents were glad to have every moment they could with the house empty of screaming kids. Back then, not every block in town was built up. We had several blocks that were empty, covered in weeds and a few trees. We made bicycle trails, club houses (refrigerator boxes, mostly) and battle fields out of these.

Now all those empty blocks are full. Mostly, they're full of shotgun houses and impromptu trailer parks. It really is a suburban slum. The area has become quite attractive to drug labs, sex offenders and gang members. The streets are much busier (at least they're paved now). When I was a kid, as early as 3rd grade, I walked to school. While I fully support the idea of "free range" kids, I gotta say, in my neighborhood, I'd be leery of letting my kids have as much free reign as I did. And I don't know whether the biggest threat would be the various druggies and pervs or other kids their age.

I grew up relatively poor in a poor neighborhood, but it never was as bad as it is now. People used to at least keep their yards relatively neat (besides the occasional rusting car on the front lawn). Now it literally looks like these people are living in garbage heaps on some blocks. But amongst the trash, there are still houses where the owners mow the lawn regularly and do a bit of gardening and landscaping. And they usually have a fence, with a dog in it, rather than a dog on a chain in a circle of bare dirt.


I forgot where I was going when I started this... something about free range kids.

Another council estate kid here too. Christ but it was rough where I grew up. We didn't know we were poor, because we didn't know anyone who wasn't

It's funny how your memory plays tricks on you. In the late 70s a writer called Jilly Cooper published a book called 'Class' which, despite being tongue-in-cheek, quite accurately portrayed most aspects of the British class system, except for one part of it - the working class. She lumped them all together into one - Mr and Mrs Definitely-Disgusting and their family.

For a frame of reference, the families in the book were:
Harry and Caroline Stow-Crat (upper class - Harry Stow-Crat, geddit?)
Gideon and Samantha Upward (upper middle - think Thatcher in her later years)
Howard and Eileen Weybridge (middle middle - think Thatcher in her earlier years)
Bryan and Jen Teale (lower middle - teachers, social workers, Guardian readers)
The Definitely-Disgustings (working class)
Mr and Mrs Nouveau-Richards (millionaires)

I must be getting this book mixed up with another, perhaps What Are U?, or something more serious, because I could have sworn Jilly Cooper divided the working class into two sections - the respectable working class, and the beyond the pale. No, perhaps not a serious book - calling them beyond the pale doesn't suggest any degree of seriousness.

But having grown up working class I can certainly confirm that there are at least two divisions - the respectable (those people who still look after their property) and the beyond the pale (those who fill their front garden with old cars and fridges).

I've seen this, not only as someone who grew up amongst it (we were respectable, naturally ), but also in my time as a removal man. I've been in some ghastly, ghastly beyond the pale places Nor are they always on council estates, nor are council estates predominantly ghastly.

The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to remember a third stratum of working class, between the respectables and the pales, but a quick web search isn't bringing up a result.

The bungled and the botched?

Fisher King reference that just popped into my head.

I've found my copy of What Are U?, and there is indeed a chapter about the working class, and a working class that's divided into three sections, but they're 'rough', 'ordinary' and 'respectable'. The piece I'm thinking of definitely called the bottom part of the working classes 'beyond the pale'.

I wonder what it was

Or if it was. It wouldn't be the first time my memory had made something up.

And you're very unlikely to find it with a Google search. The phrases are too commonly used. Our memories are aren't they? I do believe there is a synergy between our aging and our reliance on these internet connected devices that is atrophying our memory capacities at an ever increasing rate. Either that or I'm just going prematurely senile. I never had a great memory to begin with.

What was I saying?

Another council estate kid here. And I can guarantee that Party's was a great deal posher than mine, despite being only about 10 miles away. But I wasn't offended by the posting.

This seems to be a case of the tyranny of the humourless.

And I imagine they must be still reading this, unless they've unsubscribed.