martedì, ottobre 03, 2006

Why I love Northern England, Part II

Scarborough is littered with desperate yoof. Despite it being school time again, in the hour or two I spent shopping downtown I saw at least four scarcely pubescent spotty, spotty girls who either had conjunctivitis or an extremely inconsiderate sexual partner. And more yoof by the moment, it seems. You can tell Catholicism held on too long up here – so many young mothers, some of them obviously having no fucking clue.

I went into a store called Woolworth’s to look for a certain kind of baking dish for Figaro – Woolworth’s is budget but it isn’t like Walmart, it’s dirtier and stuff, like they have signs up about how it isn’t acceptable to beat on the staff. There’s a café in there where a young whale of a mother was eating, and her crying baby was sitting in a babyseat, pointing away from her and trying to crane his head around to catch sight of her. The mother was getting really pissed off and just kept yelling ‘Behave. Are you going to behave? Behave,’ at this poor fucking pre-verbal infant. Babies having babies. Awful.

Which reminds me of a story my grandmother told us yesterday of a nasty hospital trip she’d had with Grandad a few months ago. “We were in this crowded waiting room full of children. It was awful, awful. I asked one of them what they were there for, and for a moment there was complete silence in the room. And then it said ‘babies’, and they all started laughing and saying ‘babies’. Absolutely awful.’

6 commenti:

cali ha detto...

They used to have Woolworth's in Canada - wasn't it connected to the Bay somehow? It's one of those department stores like Simpsons that kind of faded away.

Melbine ha detto...

I think you might be right Calisaurus; it certainly sounds familiar.

As for babies having babies, this phenomenon just breaks my heart. And why aren't the baby's baby's parents helping? Yes, there have always been young mothers but there used to be this thing called help from your family. Geez.

Sugarplum ha detto...

There used to be a Woolworths in the Soo accross from the mall. It must have been a long time ago because all I remember from it were the really long and tall aisles and wanting a nickel for a gumball or other candy.

As for babies with babies, young teens fall into negative sexual patterns precisely when they crave love because of neglect or abuse. It's a cycle that is perpetuated through poverty because of young single mothers who have to work to support their families but then the families never get the love and attention they need from their one parent. The young mother is overworked and exhausted. Awful is right.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Now that I think about it, there was a Woolworth's in North Bay where there's some weirdo Christian cult church now. I don't remember it being so skanky.

But on reflection, North Bay gives Northern England a high run for its skank factor, which is saying something since we don't have the excuse of all being fuck-and-fight-and-ask-questions-later-by-which-I-mean-never Viking descendants.

Sugarplum ha detto...

Man! The Vikings are taking a beating from you! Where is this coming from?

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Well, when I'm safe in Canada, Vikings just look like muscly businessmen who played by their own rules and would have been sexy if they weren't blonde. When I get to Yorkshire I'm reminded they were actually a bunch of really nasty pricks.