Adventure Travel involves exploration and a certain degree of risk.
I’ve been struggling and wondering what kind of memory is going to rise to the surface next?
If you are anything like me then memories come unbidden or
they start with a nudge from someone else.
You know, as when someone tells me a story or relates an event that has
happened, then immediately it reminds me of something that occurred in my own
life. That’s probably when I interrupt
and start telling my story instead of listening to hers.
It happened recently when a friend and I were sitting down
solving all the world’s problems over a cup of tea. We were attempting to understand and compare
the education of today’s children with that of an earlier age. We’d already tut-tutted and disapproved of
their lack of cursive skills and abilities to read an analog clock, but it was
when she told me about schools having to teach teenage children how to ride on
public transport by presenting it as an adventure that my memories really began
to zero in.
Riding on trams and buses and tubes were no adventure for
our little Covey of Cockneys, it was part of living, part of getting from A to
B. It goes without saying that there was
no car in our driveway. In truth there
was no driveway either. If we needed to
get somewhere we used shanks’ pony. If
it was a long way and we had the fare, we took the tram or bus.
I’ve mentioned before that as a very young person I needed
public transport to get to school and I often travelled by tram from Battersea
to Islington to visit my grandmother. I
have now confirmed that when I moved on LS took over and often travelled the
same grandmother route. Here’s her reply
to my request for info:
“I had been doing the tram trip to Nanny B’s for sometime...maybe
I was eight or nine...Somewhere there is a very faded picture of me with
NB...she had just made me the happiest girl walking...she had put my hair into
two braids (mum wouldn’t allow it...because it would ruin my curls!!!) the
braids must have been as thick as my finger...BUT...she had an ingenious idea..
she tied heavy rag strips ( ribbons) on the ends...so I felt them swish around
and I could toss them over my shoulder...Can’t believe I remember that
sensation but I do..l just wanted to be like my friend Nicky...her mother had
the hens...Nicky had really long braids that were probably six inches
wide...!!...Anyway...I look really young in that picture and I know I went
there on my own.”
I just love
the memory of the “rag strip ribbons” and think it would be wonderful if we
could find the photograph. Unfortunately, that's probably never going to happen. So this make believe one will have to do!
We moved to Clapham in the 1950’s. No
trams where we lived, so we took the bus; for 10 year old LB that meant taking the
bus to school. According to his
recollection that would not have been any big deal as he already had experience
of wandering around without supervision:
"I do remember getting
lost with George and some other kids when we lived on Silverthorne Rd. We were up around some flats by the church
yard steps Wandsworth Road. I would have
been around 7 or 8, maybe younger."
Bringing the memories more up to date with my own children,
it seems that number one and only son recalls leaving home at about 10 or 11
years of age armed with two bags of chips. He didn’t bother with wheeled transport he
just kept walking until all the chips had been devoured and with no idea where
the next meal would come from, he headed home.
I couldn’t help but wonder about my parenting skills when my
youngest daughter reminded me that she took her first public transport trip
alone at the age of 3 years! Well, she
wasn’t technically alone. I wasn’t with
her but she was accompanied by her four or five year old friend! The friend had suggested they walk to the
store to get candies, so they did. I was not there so I cannot say for certain what happened, but eventually she came home with a tale of riding a bus!
There’s a lot written today about how much risk a child
should be able to experience in order to learn to make viable judgments in the
future. To this end children’s
playgrounds are being redesigned (at least in Britain) to include dangerous aspects,
and no doubt the public transport “adventure” is part of that trend.
and no doubt the public transport “adventure” is part of that trend.
Nevertheless, I truly believe that today’s parents, like any
parents of any time, are doing their best.
They want their children to be safe.
So, imagine how you would feel if you were the parent of the 12 year old
boy from “down under” who, according to a report on April 24 /18 really took
the Adventure Travel to the ultimate extreme.
What more can I say!
