Early-mid nineties was very much when skateboarding was up it's own arse. Outrageous fashion statements, technical tricks with silly small wheels. It became an identity. It was some kind of statement that went beyond just owning a skateboard and enjoying skateboarding.
It really mattered whether your wheels were 42mm or 39mm, what company they were made by, what clothes and labels you wore. The shape, thickness, concavity, proportions and dimensions of your skateboard were as important as the name and company being endorsed. The paraphernalia involved was bestowed great sentimental care and attention. Skaters had to be rich looking back I suppose.
Not a lot of substance to the skating to be fair but I do like some of the tech stuff we don't get these days and I remember trying to do those heel flip shuv-its to manual role with varying success. A lot of people stopped skating then. Too anal, maybe too expensive?
I'd like to give a big shout out to ****, my cousin's husband who is on death's door at the moment in Australia from a brain tumour that is killing him. He's a youngish father of two and for someone who fought in Northern Ireland and the Falklands throughout the 80's it would be fair to say that his last 10 years in England were led fairly selflessly and precariously at the mercy of the decisions made by the tory government.
I'm not sure to what extent he felt that morally these wars were worth fighting and being apart of but when the subject was brought up it did seem to really stress him out.
My advice would be don't let it get on top of you. You fought, you survived, great, you're not dead, now live your life. Blame the government if you must blame anyone. I hope he is able to recover and live the rest of his life in peace.
I know my grandad suffered terribly from nightmares and poor sleep throughout his life after WW2. So my guess is that Glen has probably been affected in a similar way? Get well soon. I wish him peace. Sorry for the atitude when I visited... Maybe there are no living heros from wars just survivors.
I'm sorry, I'm lieing. He was a hero. His life read perfectly as him being a living hero. I did become slightly in awe of him when he was alive but upon realising the full extent of his exploits in the War from a military view point I now feel more impressed and proud of what he did. Not only him, but my other grand parents also did remarkable things and I'm left wondering how rare or special they are also? Gramps won the war and came away from it the moral victor, he was motivated by a will to help the Jewish people from when he decided to sign up. That I know to be the truth. That would seem like a virtuous reason to go to war. What are they fighting for these days?
My understanding of the Afghanistan conflict is that a part of Sharia law states that under certain circumstances it is permitted to basically extort protection money from a civilian population and the group of people currently doing this are the Taliban in areas of Afghanistan. So the West's involvment in that area is an attempt to bring down this regime. A bit like trying to stop Al Capone in the 1920's in Chicago but on a regional scale.
I can envisage the Christian/Muslim divide and the incidences of us coming into conflict with each other to steadily increase in number and frequency until new borders and territories are established with respect to these two groups.
That's a best case scenario, at worst civilization will retreat into the dark ages in a dog eat dog world of every man for himself. So on the face of it, the pursuit of justice in this conflict would at least adhere to some kind of system or set of laws. Albeit, a very ancient possibly archaic set of laws/rules.
What could screw us all is if one of these conflicts is settled by a Nuclear attack which could potentially end the world.
He was the squadron leader of The Royal Australian Air Force and was one of only 10% who survived bombings of Berlin itself. Though he did tell me that on one occasion a bullet came through the floor of his Lancaster Bomber, hit the roof and fell down the back of his shirt burning his bum such was the velocity of the ammunition used by the Germans.
But, he did alot of other stuff like training people to fly, maintaining aircraft, and stuff in Europe and towards India and Burma towards the end of the war. He was the only person to go to some place in Italy also to help out some Merchant Navy ships stuck in some enemy port or something too? G*** stressed this as being very important.
Type "quisque tenax" into google which is latin for "each one tenacious" and the Black Panther Squadron MOD website will come up as the first result with more info. if you care which you probably don't? Could make a movie out of his life but it would be quite a predictable one...he won and survived, yawn! a bit like James Bond.
As far as I can work out life in Australia centered around: heavy drinking, gambling, fist fighting, fast women and massive business deals in a new country up for grabs. He came from a military family. So much so that alot of them were sent back from WW1 for being too enthusiastic.... alot of them turned to drink so I guess, being the youngest, he already had reason enough to hate of the Germans before the war even broke out.
Apparently one ancestoral lineage of the family came from the German/Swiss border. Two brothers were deported by the German authorities for not having the right papers entering Germany. One went to South America and the other to Australia. Apparently the brother who went to South America became the king of Equador or something nuts. Interesting read.
Early-mid nineties was very much when skateboarding was up it's own arse. Outrageous fashion statements, technical tricks with silly small wheels. It became an identity. It was some kind of statement that went beyond just owning a skateboard and enjoying skateboarding.
ReplyDeleteIt really mattered whether your wheels were 42mm or 39mm, what company they were made by, what clothes and labels you wore. The shape, thickness, concavity, proportions and dimensions of your skateboard were as important as the name and company being endorsed. The paraphernalia involved was bestowed great sentimental care and attention. Skaters had to be rich looking back I suppose.
Not a lot of substance to the skating to be fair but I do like some of the tech stuff we don't get these days and I remember trying to do those heel flip shuv-its to manual role with varying success. A lot of people stopped skating then. Too anal, maybe too expensive?
I'd like to give a big shout out to ****, my cousin's husband who is on death's door at the moment in Australia from a brain tumour that is killing him. He's a youngish father of two and for someone who fought in Northern Ireland and the Falklands throughout the 80's it would be fair to say that his last 10 years in England were led fairly selflessly and precariously at the mercy of the decisions made by the tory government.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure to what extent he felt that morally these wars were worth fighting and being apart of but when the subject was brought up it did seem to really stress him out.
My advice would be don't let it get on top of you. You fought, you survived, great, you're not dead, now live your life. Blame the government if you must blame anyone. I hope he is able to recover and live the rest of his life in peace.
I know my grandad suffered terribly from nightmares and poor sleep throughout his life after WW2. So my guess is that Glen has probably been affected in a similar way? Get well soon. I wish him peace. Sorry for the atitude when I visited... Maybe there are no living heros from wars just survivors.
I'm sorry, I'm lieing. He was a hero. His life read perfectly as him being a living hero. I did become slightly in awe of him when he was alive but upon realising the full extent of his exploits in the War from a military view point I now feel more impressed and proud of what he did. Not only him, but my other grand parents also did remarkable things and I'm left wondering how rare or special they are also? Gramps won the war and came away from it the moral victor, he was motivated by a will to help the Jewish people from when he decided to sign up. That I know to be the truth. That would seem like a virtuous reason to go to war. What are they fighting for these days?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the Afghanistan conflict is that a part of Sharia law states that under certain circumstances it is permitted to basically extort protection money from a civilian population and the group of people currently doing this are the Taliban in areas of Afghanistan. So the West's involvment in that area is an attempt to bring down this regime. A bit like trying to stop Al Capone in the 1920's in Chicago but on a regional scale.
ReplyDeleteI can envisage the Christian/Muslim divide and the incidences of us coming into conflict with each other to steadily increase in number and frequency until new borders and territories are established with respect to these two groups.
That's a best case scenario, at worst civilization will retreat into the dark ages in a dog eat dog world of every man for himself. So on the face of it, the pursuit of justice in this conflict would at least adhere to some kind of system or set of laws. Albeit, a very ancient possibly archaic set of laws/rules.
What could screw us all is if one of these conflicts is settled by a Nuclear attack which could potentially end the world.
He was the squadron leader of The Royal Australian Air Force and was one of only 10% who survived bombings of Berlin itself. Though he did tell me that on one occasion a bullet came through the floor of his Lancaster Bomber, hit the roof and fell down the back of his shirt burning his bum such was the velocity of the ammunition used by the Germans.
ReplyDeleteBut, he did alot of other stuff like training people to fly, maintaining aircraft, and stuff in Europe and towards India and Burma towards the end of the war. He was the only person to go to some place in Italy also to help out some Merchant Navy ships stuck in some enemy port or something too? G*** stressed this as being very important.
Type "quisque tenax" into google which is latin for "each one tenacious" and the Black Panther Squadron MOD website will come up as the first result with more info. if you care which you probably don't? Could make a movie out of his life but it would be quite a predictable one...he won and survived, yawn! a bit like James Bond.
As far as I can work out life in Australia centered around: heavy drinking, gambling, fist fighting, fast women and massive business deals in a new country up for grabs. He came from a military family. So much so that alot of them were sent back from WW1 for being too enthusiastic.... alot of them turned to drink so I guess, being the youngest, he already had reason enough to hate of the Germans before the war even broke out.
ReplyDeleteApparently one ancestoral lineage of the family came from the German/Swiss border. Two brothers were deported by the German authorities for not having the right papers entering Germany. One went to South America and the other to Australia. Apparently the brother who went to South America became the king of Equador or something nuts. Interesting read.