I could see them as I plodded up the road with the dog.  A bunch of them around the bus stop – all blocking the pavement – all giggling and chatting to each other like they do.  A young mum some distance ahead had to stop and manoeuvre her buggy through them – as they parted just enough.

To be fair, some saw me and the dog coming and moved to the side.  But the main bunch were still a solid wall – moving back just enough for me to squeeze between them.  Cracking jokes to each other: “Come on through unless you are joining us!”  And when I asked them to move because they were blocking the pavement, there was the expected “How rude.” and then half-heard ”He’s a grumpy … “ from behind me.

 

Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters

 

Except they weren’t    they weren’t   Except they weren’t    they weren’t    Except they weren’t    they weren’t 

 

Try adding five/six decades to that assumption. 

 

This was a bunch of “senior” year-old’s.  The only difference between them and “youngsters” was the lack of swearing and the absence of hoodies.  Everything else was the same.

 

 

Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters Typical youngsters

 

Yet these are the people who point the finger at “youngsters” who “have no respect, no manners, and are sending the world to hell in a handbasket”.  The same (moneyed) seniors driving top-of-the-range cars – who drive as though the road is their personal property.  The same seniors whose reaction times and periphery vision can be  horrendously poor – whose driving can and does cause road-rage in others.

But these seniors are the ones who tell me that “youngsters” scooting around are why we have “road-rage” (and – usually – all other problems known to mankind).

More and more I see seniors acting like “hoodies”

Just without the swearing (and with the neatly coiffured hair)

Maybe money is the reason  Maybe money is the reason

This golden age of pensions (which the current seniors are enjoying).  Their often heard “I have paid in all my life and now it’s my turn!”  Their often heard “I took early retirement you know – I would have been a fool to keep working to retirement age!”  This golden age of pensions which will be paid for by the “youngsters” for decades to come – the same “youngsters” who are unlikely ever to live a retirement as indulgent.

Maybe seniors are as much to blame for the world going to hell in a handbasket as the very youngsters the seniors blame.  Maybe the youngsters are right to lay the blame at the door of these seniors.  Maybe there is no difference between either.  Other than the carefully tended differences each group must have of any other.

Bar n Bus on a Thursday night has shown me that “hoodies” are no different to anyone else.  No different to me.  No different to any age grouping.  I have found each human being can be as big a pain in the bum as any other (and as equally loving and wonderful).

Age is not the determining factor nor the excuse.

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Quite how that fits with anything I leave to you to decide.

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