Kev was told he was too drunk to go into the blues bar, so I took the night bus home from Soho to my lovely home in Peckham.
I got off the bus, and there were two hooded youths sitting on the wall.
I looked at them and said hello, and being drunk I asked them 'How they were doing?' Obviously I used street slang so they wouldn't beat me up.
I was quite surprised to find them polite and friendly. They told me they were waiting for the 63 bus to Farringdon, to go and 'hang out' with their mates.
Thinking I was some kind of investigative journalist, I proceeded to quiz them about their lives growing up in Peckham, and they were most forthcoming with their opinions.
Peckham is not so bad they said. Keep your head down on the estates and no-one bothers you. You know the kids with knives and you stay away from them. It helps to know the right people - people with older brothers who are hard. They know people who are rumoured to have guns, but they've never seen one. They've had a few near misses, but it's no worse than anywhere else. They like Peckham.
I walked away feeling that teenagers nowadays are not so bad after all. I must have been drunk...
Posted by paul at September 7, 2005 12:32 PM