TV Dreams

I used to pick up hitchers on a fairly regular basis back in the late seventies and eighties, mostly young folk, students etc. But time goes by, families come along and we become more sensible, more safe, more limited in our outlooks maybe?

Well I was coming back from town today and saw I hitcher thumbing it. Decided he looked OK and pulled over. How you can tell by looking at someone whether they’re OK beats me, but alot of us do it, don’t we?

Anyway I made the right decision as he’d just got out of prison and only had ten pounds in his pocket. The road out of Lincoln he needed was only half a mile further on from my house so it was no problem dropping him off.

Turns out he’d gone to jail for a fortnight for swearing at a judge and telling him what he thought of his decision. And only a County Court judge at that.

He was in court for sending his youngest a Blur CD and his eldest some other rock group as Easter presents. WOW! I didn’t know courts could sever relations like that. Neither can he send emails to his children.

His wife claimed he was violent, but he said she was the violent one and had gone to the police after she’d slashed him with a knife, they’d put him in touch with a victim support group, but his wife got in first claiming he’d been violent to her. He claims she lied in court and got custody.

Of course, one can’t make too many assumptions from hearing only one side and not seeing/hearing the evidence. But stopping a father giving presents to his children and banning email contact seems very harsh. I could understand his communications possibly having to be monitored. But s

Sometimes it makes me wonder when the pendulum of parents rights is going to start swinging the other way?

There’s always someone worse off than oneself, yeah?

Gotta go now.