Thursday 2 October 2008

we don't have an initiation ceremony.....



at the life drawing group, but I'm thinking of creating one.

Maybe we all get lashed, put huge canvas' on the floor, pour paint all over each other and drag each other across them ?..........artists naked, model sitting on a stool fully clothed ?

I wonder if the public at large are stupid enough to join in with the slightly hysterical tone of the BBC this morning ?
Picture the scene, some eighteen year old students, who have spent the last five to six years being constantly pressured by educational establishments and their parents, are away from home for the first meaningful time in their lives. Knowing very few people in their new environment they nip out for a couple of pints.
Next thing they know, they are are prostrate, vomiting with a bag on their head, being screamed at by a Nazi..............which of us can honestly say they have never found themselves in a similar situation ?

Anyone who joined H.M.Forces in the 1980's will be very familiar with this sort of training.

Apparently the military still indulge in this sort of thing. Really ?
Men and women who are about to be sent to, or have just returned from, wars in hot foreign countries feel the need to get thoroughly trollied with their mates, and arse about.

The people should be told, it's an outrage, and such a new phenomena.

Old Hogarth was perhaps using a little artistic license, or maybe he tidied things up and the reality was worse, my point is hopefully obvious, people getting hammered and making themselves look stupid is not a new thing.
It's not big, or clever, but at one time or another most of us have got a bit Pinot Grigio'd and made errors of judgement.

If my vague memories of being young, enthusiastic, callow and inexperienced are correct, I was feeling the pressure a bit.
Economically the country was in a hole, and I had joined the military for work. However, as a thinking young man I took the responsibility of that decision fairly seriously.
The received wisdom at the time was that Ivan the Terrible could rip through the Fulda Gap any day he liked. A good friend of mine in a forward unit in Germany had an officially stated life expectancy of six minutes, post kick-off.
Odd though it may seem, we sometimes got a bit pissed up.

Could it be possible that these kids are just letting off steam ?

7 comments:

Swearing Mother said...

Doing daft things is a right of passage, one which most of us have done at some time but which we probably wouldn't do again now. I hate boring old farts who can only criticise the young. As long as no one gets hurt (you have to draw the line somewhere) who does it damage?

In my first job at a teaching hospital in Birmingham, we used to get regularly pissed in the doctors' quarters and get up to all sorts of naughtiness. We got reported for getting some young SHO plastered (literally, from ankle to thigh), painting his genitals blue with some sort of medical dye and leaving him in tied up in a wheelchair in the Accident and Emergency Department. Well, it was the night before his wedding, it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it?

No lasting damage was done (I hope), we all got a severe bollocking from matron and a reputation for being hell-raisers.

Brilliant.

Unknown said...

.....and that's EXACTLY the sort of behaviour that made this country great !!

Wonderful tale sweary. X

Manic Mother Of Five said...

Not against a few high jinx myself but the crux of this matter I felt was the pressure these people were under to participate in these escapades.

I have been known to get trolleyed in my time but it was MY decision (generally the husband begs me NOT to as I have a tendency to play the tambourine after one too many sherbets, but that's another story!!!)

Unknown said...

tambourine.......now there's a much underated skill......

The Hangar Queen said...

Sure where would we be without a few tales of youthful *ahem* excess and zeal in the bollox-acting department?
Utah?
Many a stag night (won't be doing those anymore)ended up with some mate dyed some horrible industrial colour,handcuffed to a lamp post wearing only a ball and chain doused in cheap lager and vindaloo.
Ah..all fun and games until someone loses their sense of perspective.

So Knifeyboy..still want to sketch me?

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Now I know why I decided not to join the life drawing sessions - yet!!

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