I think I had a middle-class hippie come on to me.

Seriously tho.. Surely a certain dippy idealism can be forgiven in the young. Don't get me young, I hate barefoot-in-the-pub (as opposed to Barefoot in the Head, Aldiss fans) stuff as much as the next cynic, and all things batik and juggly bring me out in hives, but she'll probably grow out of it. Jesus, when I was eighteen I still listened to New Model Army records..

Anyway, it's bad to despise the middle classes just for being middle class. What do you want them to do, give all their money away and move en masse to the East Manchester wasteland and shop exclusively in Netto just for having the temerity to buy their children holidays abroad? Seems a tad excessive.

Lets not forget kids, inverted snobbery is snobbery nonetheless, and not good.

I certainly don't despise them, I think a lot of them a probably very nice people trying to understand things about the world. It is not unnatural for them to think they might find this understanding by going to see it.

Barefoot In The Pub is the name of my next novel now. Thank you.

The 'go to India and find yourself' syndrome over here has of late been typified by the likes of Alanis Morrissette and that Live guy. This is not a glowing recommendation.

I find your comments on yourself as interesting as yet another discussion of rich hippie chix. I think your class identity issue ("two generations out of the mines ALL CAPS") is so alien to people in the US that it positively boggles my mind. My grandma was a divorced single mom working in a factory in depression Appalachia (Kentucky), and I absolutely NEVER think of my class identity in those terms. It is not because all Americans are striving and want to paper over their roots, it is because it would just be very misleading, almost as misleading as being a fake hippy. (I WAS crucially embarassed by hillbilly Grandma in social settings until I was about 15 and understood she was, for her several limitations, a incredible and very cool person :)) Nick, I don't know you, for all I know you cough up coal dust at night, sorry if I have you all wrong.

I salute you for alerting your mate to his behavior. A well-poured pint is a thing of beauty. But again, so are many tanned rich 18 yr old faux hippy chicks, esp when they are hitting on you.

It's the weirdest thing! Nick, was it a conscious move on your part?

"She was eighteen, just got back from Thailand..."

I said pretend you've got no scarf on. She said "Are you in Marketing" (I said mines). But she didn't understand. She just smiled and held my hippie hand... You'll never be like barefoot people, you'll never wear what barefoot people wear. As people track mud across your floor you could call daddy and he could buy some SHOEOEOEOEOEOES!

My own middle class obsession with cleanliness has reawakened and I have come to my senses about this fake-ass hippy and she is repulsive. Because of the barefoot in pub thing. Unforgiveably gross.

http://homepage.mac.com/dtcd/yum.jpg

Oh of course, and tortured first preferably (rolls eyes skywards) You are a SILLY ASS nick S, for you had the chance of hippie lurve and you turned it down for the sake ov some cobblers self-righteous NME-stylee clarse-con-shus ideology. You should avail yerself of the hippie lurve in phuture, as well as the goth/rasta/crustie whatever coz in times ov famine you will surely regret it. BTW i am only 2 generations out of the SHiPYaRDZ of the TYNE, but I would not boast abt it. Plenty ov fine people worked in the shipyards & coalmines. Plenty of assholes too.

I don't think people who send their teenagers to Thailand are middle class, by the way. If you can afford that you're not in our income bracket. (No I'm not jealous.)

If you can I see no problem with traveling around and seeing as much of the world as possible. It sounds like fun, and I'm sure you'd learn a lot. You could "find yourself" anywhere, and you wouldn't be transformed into a Thai peasant or whatever, but it wouldn't be JUST entertainment. You'd surely learn some language and history. I don't understand where "pseudo-moralist imperialism" comes from, everyone appreciates other people's cultures more than their own.

As for the barefoot issue, that I'm in favour of. I hate shoes.

And no, Ned, I hadn't planned it to scan that way at all! Just one of those cool sychronicities I guess.

And I'd just like to point out that I am still happily with my girlfriend of nine months, and that she is not a hippy, and that her dad is loaded, and that the TWO GENERATIONS OUT OF THE MINES thing is kind of a family joke, because I was born in Exeter and my brothers were born in Sheffield.

(Hmmmm, pachouli nipples...)

James Huberty

(If youare from the filth, I did have ulterior motives for taking that)

Bare feet on grass and sand = wonderful!! (not in pubs tho, I think, unless in a beer gardeny type situation.)