It seems today it’s a novelty to find a polite young man (as were the three in the sinking vessel on Sunday evening despite their predicament) and to see a group of youths?
Well, quite honestly, they make me nervous.
After I reported the lads in the hire motor boat that hit us at Stratford, I was anxious for hours afterwards that there would be repercussions and they would come back on foot. We were lucky in that we had people both sides of us who had witnessed the incident who said they would be watching our backs and to give them a shout should we need assistance.
Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon when after mooring up for the night, we noticed five young males having a picnic at one of the tables on the recreation ground.
Litter was almost ankle deep around them, and they were still adding to it when we passed by to do our shopping.
Hubby made the mistake of suggesting they clear up their mess rather than throw it on the floor, indicating a large empty crisp packet that one had literally just dropped in front of us.
After some steely and strained word exchange, the youth finally picked up the offending bag telling us to go away as he glared at us through glazed grey eyes with dilated pupils.
We were less than five steps past them when he threw it on the ground again saying to his mates that he wasn’t intimidated by an Old Man.
The irony is that they’d purchased their feast from the supermarket and thus had several carrier bags, two of which were empty and had been discarded on the grass. It wouldn’t have hurt to put their rubbish in one of them, and then placed said filled rubbish bag in the (empty) bin not two feet from where they were sitting.
Back at the boat, we could see the picnic table and the strewn rubbish they were continually adding to. They were there all afternoon, and although they didn’t exactly cause any trouble, to us it was obvious they were bored and had nothing better to do.
They disappeared after three police cars pulled up in the car park.
It’s sad to think that this is our Youth of Today, a generation with no consideration, thought or care for anyone or anything, content to sit in a mess of their own making and expect someone else to clear up after them.
Where is their pride, if not in their surroundings, then at least in themselves?
pensitivity101 
We see this behavior, too. Your last sentence says a great deal. Not concerned with doing what is right (without any reward, applause, or trophy). Not concerned with the environment (They yawn? Heard too many wails and weepings about it? Didn’t make any impact). Not concerned or involved in real life or taking a role in society/civilization at all. I hate to sound like I’m as old as dirt, but really – why are they being such slugs? Sigh
Things seemed so different when I was their age.No wonder things are going to the dogs.
While I agree that many youth are totally irresponsible, I do believe that the majority are fine citizens. The problem is that we rarely hear about the good ones. We never notice the many youth who are going about their day to day business very responsibly. I am reminded of an analogy I made sometime ago in a related situation. In this case it was delinquent drivers. My comment was that on my drive to work every morning, I will share the road with around 800 vehicles during my trip. I will remember the idiot that cut me off. I will remember the moron who changed lanes without signalling. I will remember the two cars that seemed be racing each other. I will get to work and perhaps vent about those four vehicles however, I probably would not recognize the other 796 drivers who were no problem at all. It’s all perspective and I think that labeling all delinquents as “the youth of today” is doing an injustice to all the responsible ones. đŸ™‚
Colin, I so agree. It is always the bad impressions that stick foremost in our minds.
Of course not all young people, male or female, are like these guys (and I apologise for the generalisation in this particular post and could probably have worded it better) as there are a lot of good kids out there. I found it with fostering, as in many cases all they needed was a chance and someone to take an interest.