Eastern Suburbs Boyz N The Hood

By Mike Hytner on September 24, 2013 in Other

Around twenty years ago, on the night of Halloween at my home back in the UK, there was a knock on the door. I answered swiftly, armed with a bowl of sticky sweets in readiness to fend off any macabre spectres that might have been lurking outside. Instead, a different kind of spectre presented itself in the form of three hooded youths, rather older than your average ghoul, standing on my doorstep.

“Trick or treat,” one of their number mumbled. I held out the bowl for them to dip their hands into. They looked unimpressed. “Nah, cash only, pal,” was the menacing response. I told them where to get off and for my trouble was informed I would regret my decision not to grease their palms with gold. Sure enough, upon waking in the morning I found that our gate had been ripped off its hinges and ‘tagged’ in purple all over with a spray can.

Fast-forward to about two weeks ago, and there was another knock on the door, this time of my home in the Eastern Suburbs. Again, three youths stood on my doorstep. Given previous experiences, I was immediately wary. Until, that is, the leader of the gang piped up: “We’re selling avocados from our garden, would you like to buy some? Two for two dollars.” This time, I was only too happy to hand over my hard-earned cash. The boys left with a spring in their steps and I was left to enjoy the fruits, quite literally, of the deal.

The two incidents could not have been more different and the latter was certainly a pleasant eye opener. It’s not like I’m from South Central LA or anything – far from it, in fact – but roaming packs of feral youths, like the one attempting to cash in on Halloween, don’t appear to be as prevalent over here.

Maybe I am, like so many others, so ensconced in my comfortable little bubble that I don’t notice it, but I really am struggling to think of a time during my stay here when I have seen a bunch of bored teenagers hanging around on a street corner, waiting to find trouble. Of course, the cash these boys pocketed from their fruit sales might have gone towards some nefarious purpose, the purchase of a bag of weed or coke or one of those synthetic drugs kids do these days perhaps, but somehow I doubt it. When would they have time to do that? My experience of local kids is that they’re always on the go. There’s always something for them to do here, be it organised by someone else – schools, sports clubs, youth organisations, whatever – or by themselves – heading down to the beach, having a kick-about with mates on the oval, door-to-door avocado sales, etc.

The youth of the Eastern Suburbs are no doubt lucky – they’re encouraged to get out and do stuff, because there is so much on offer. For that they – and we – should be nothing but grateful. Our streets may be filled with doggy-doo, we may have somewhat over-enthusiastic parking inspectors and we may have to put up with few too many 4x4s on the streets, but let’s get some perspective here: at least the kids are nice, our gateposts secure and our avocados 100 per cent organic!