Despite the blessed sub editors at the Grauniad crediting this to somebody else FOR THE SECOND WEEK RUNNING(!) I enjoyed the chance to draw bears, alcohol, facetious t-shirt slogans & very low slung trousers whilst simultaneously indicating my general disdain at camping in general...article follows...
One of the meagre perks of eavesdropping is that it can clue you in to worlds you might otherwise know nothing about. In this case modern festival culture, where it seems everyone gets a lift home from their parents. Years ago it would be several days before you could have faced (+I)anyone’s(-I) parents, especially your own. Still, listening to the man across from me on the train it was apparent that some aspects of generational division are alive and well.
Man 1 “My daughter went down to the Reading Festival, so I had to drive down there to pick her up.”
Man 2 “She had a good time?”
Man 1 “So she said.”
Man 2 “Did she have ‘bare alcohol?’”
Man1 “What’s ‘bear alcohol’?”
Man 2 “No, it’s ‘(+I)bare(-I) alcohol,’ it’s what they say instead of ‘a lot’.
Man 1 “I’d bought her a tent.”
Man 2 “Did she set it on fire? I hear that’s the thing to do these days, burn your tent.”
Man 1” No, well from what I gather she didn’t use it, she certainly didn’t bring it back with her.”
Man 2 Well they ask you to hand them in now, if you don’t want them. They recycle them, send them off to the Sudan, or one of those places.”
Man 1 “Well she said she didn’t use it. I suppose she must have stayed in someone else’s.”
Man 2 “Last time I went to one of those things someone kicked me out of a tent in the middle of the night, I was sure it was mine.”
Man 1 “Well, like I say, she must have stayed in someone else’s. She certainly made a lot of friends, she had three lads with her, I ended up giving them a lift too.”
Now are you being naïve or am I being cynical about what might have happened there, I wondered. I guess the truth, like her tent, is out there somewhere.
Article by Michael Holden
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