Pages

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

'A wild kid from the suburbs'

It's week 2 for the reading group and the chapter is 'The uses of sidewalks: safety'. Heather and Steven have already covered some interesting ground on this chapter. While re-reading it, I was struck by one passage in particular:
One night a young man came roaring along, bellowing terrible language at two girls whom he had apparently picked up and who were disappointing him. Doors opened, a wary semicircle formed around him, not too close, until the police came. Out came the heads, too, along Hudson Street, offering opinion, "Drunk ... Crazy ... A wild kid from the suburbs."*
* He turned out to be a wild kid from the suburbs. Sometimes, on Hudson Street, we are tempted to believe the suburbs must be a difficult place to bring up children.
Then later, as if on cue, I read this report in the paper:
A 19-year-old Andover [N.H.] man allegedly punctuated the end of a Super Bowl party at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Boston by beating two other men with a pistol, authorities said today.
Then and now, this is an common kind of story around Boston, and I would suppose in many other cities. It's only natural for people to come from out of town for 'recreational' purposes. But some blow it out of proportion, and then they end up in the next day's papers.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.