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Oct. 18th, 2006 06:30 pmSo as invited by Caryn - as I found out today that "Karen" spells it, from her name badge - I accompanied my mother to the Youth Council meeting at tea time. Peter arrived in the people carrier to pick her up; he hadn't known I'd be coming with her so had taken all the seats out of the back. He was mortified when I came out with her and he had no seat for me, just the hard wood on the people carrier's floor, but he lent me an old jacket to sit on - and never stopped saying sorry all through the journey.
The Youth Council turned out to be half a dozen teenagers who are a volunteer representative body for all the young people of the town, liaising with the Council and other bodies. The YC were accompanied by 12 or so other teens (plus a girl who's just graduated from Uni and now works for a local youth project: at 21, she just squeaks in!)
They all came into the Mayor's Parlour where me ma showed them the Mace and told them all about that, then she showed them the trophies and talked a little bit about those before taking them to the Council Chamber, explaining what goes on at council meetings and asking for a volunteer to ring the bell. At first there were no takers, then one lad stepped forward. My mother showed him how to ring it by pulling the string under the Deputy Mayor's chair - he gave it a mighty heave and the bell made a hell of a clang!
From there it was into the room adjoining the Parlour for the buffet. My mother and I rightly stood back and let the kids have first crack at the grub, though Jan said in an aside to me that she thought I should be piling in with them all to avoid dipping out! They pigged all the Battenburg cakes, but they had left me plenty of peanuts, and there was still chicken, a slice of spud in a skin, a Bakewell tart and a cheese and pickle sandwich on brown to keep me going :) Indeed, there was enough for a couple of lasses to go up for seconds, to the disapproval of one of their friends...
As I talked to a couple of the older girls, my mother dropped into the conversation that I'd been Chairman of my FE College's student council in 1989 and urged me on to mention it to everyone. So I said it to the girls during a quiet period, so everyone could hear, but it was mostly met with amusement. (Probably at my being, in their eyes, so old.)
We rounded off by returning to the Chamber, where the Council sat at the central table and explained to everyone else what they do, then there was a general Q&A session about life for youths in the borough.
Outside afterwards, Peter had not only put the back seats back in the people carrier but had salvaged all the leftover sandwiches and cheese-and-tomato sticks for me ma.
The Youth Council turned out to be half a dozen teenagers who are a volunteer representative body for all the young people of the town, liaising with the Council and other bodies. The YC were accompanied by 12 or so other teens (plus a girl who's just graduated from Uni and now works for a local youth project: at 21, she just squeaks in!)
They all came into the Mayor's Parlour where me ma showed them the Mace and told them all about that, then she showed them the trophies and talked a little bit about those before taking them to the Council Chamber, explaining what goes on at council meetings and asking for a volunteer to ring the bell. At first there were no takers, then one lad stepped forward. My mother showed him how to ring it by pulling the string under the Deputy Mayor's chair - he gave it a mighty heave and the bell made a hell of a clang!
From there it was into the room adjoining the Parlour for the buffet. My mother and I rightly stood back and let the kids have first crack at the grub, though Jan said in an aside to me that she thought I should be piling in with them all to avoid dipping out! They pigged all the Battenburg cakes, but they had left me plenty of peanuts, and there was still chicken, a slice of spud in a skin, a Bakewell tart and a cheese and pickle sandwich on brown to keep me going :) Indeed, there was enough for a couple of lasses to go up for seconds, to the disapproval of one of their friends...
As I talked to a couple of the older girls, my mother dropped into the conversation that I'd been Chairman of my FE College's student council in 1989 and urged me on to mention it to everyone. So I said it to the girls during a quiet period, so everyone could hear, but it was mostly met with amusement. (Probably at my being, in their eyes, so old.)
We rounded off by returning to the Chamber, where the Council sat at the central table and explained to everyone else what they do, then there was a general Q&A session about life for youths in the borough.
Outside afterwards, Peter had not only put the back seats back in the people carrier but had salvaged all the leftover sandwiches and cheese-and-tomato sticks for me ma.
