A Story for #storycamp
Pull up your chair to the fire while I tell you a story.
This evening, I arranged a meeting involving myself, Ken Eastwood, Guy Jarvis, and Simon Davison. We were discussing connectivity possibilities for the community broadband initiative Ken is planning in the Worth Valley. It was a good, constructive meeting, and left us with a lot of optimism that NextGenUs will be able to work with the communities in the Worth Valley to bring them 21st Century connectivity. As I said at one point, if the Brontes were alive today they’d be bloggers, but they’d also be frustrated at the poor connectivity in the area.
What was really remarkable was what was going on around us. We met at the Cedar Court Hotel in Ainley Top, Huddersfield. As we sat there, sports cars, limousines and taxis started arriving and disgorging glamorously dressed people into the hotel foyer. It took a little while for us to work out that all these people were actually quite young. And then we noticed that, at the bottom of the stairs to the function room, they were all being stopped and searched. Every other young woman was handing over a bottle of vodka (usually nearly empty) from their handbag. At this point we realised that what we were witnessing was a Year 11 prom (a school-leaving party for 16 year-olds). Almost as soon as we realised this, three girls peeled off from the queue and ran for the toilet. As they ran, the dress of one of them fell down to her waist, and one of the others fell to the floor, only to fight with her friends when they tried to pick her up.
The queue continued pouring through the door and the half bottles of vodka continued being handed over. Then, it all went quiet, until, about 10 minutes later, there was a kerfuffle outside the door. A very drunk young woman spent the next 10 minutes trying to dodge a man and a woman who were blocking her access. Eventually she got in, only to be pushed back out again with lots of screaming and cursing.
I tell this story only so you can share my pain. I am the father of a 16 year-old daughter. She has her own Year 11 Prom coming up in 2 weeks time. I wish I hadn’t had this insight into what happens there.
