Re: Standing on stones | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Standing on stones

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Shelby Mustang Aug 18, 2006 11:36:41

Replying to Littlestone

i've sat my nippers up on some of the stones at Avebury i've been doing it since they were splibs.

last year i was 'oiking two of my nippers louis 'eight then and Scarlett 'six then up the side of the Devils Chair, they were hardly going to climb it its a fucking monster, they just wanted to be high up alongside it. Camden my other'n was waiting his turn.

anyway some guy came over to me and told me to get my kids off the stone. he had his girlfriend with him and it more than struck me that it was all for affect, a short argument ensued and it was as he was walking away he said over his shoulder 'Don't ruin it for the rest of us'.

Man if i didn't have my hands full of nippers i'd have given him a lesson in respect. the little upstart. you can tell the short haired longhairs a mile off.

he fucked my head for a long time and i didn't visit the place for a year because of the bad vibe and i've never left there with a bad vibe.

i've got nothing but respect for all things Neolithic and so do my children.

i don't allow them to climb the stones anymore, it would've been a natural progression anyway weather the pseudo hippie had stuck his oar in or not.

i guess what i'm saying is that my kids'll take their kids'll take their kids, like my Dad and Mum took me.

to quote withnail and i "they're sellin' hippie wigs in Woolworths now"

as you might gather it still sticks in my craw.

BuckyE Aug 18, 2006 14:54:55

Replying to Shelby Mustang

Shelby Mustang wrote:

i guess what i'm saying is that my kids'll take their kids'll take their kids, like my Dad and Mum took me.

They might, and they might not. Depending on what kind of damage is done by how many people each making their own self-centered rationalizations about their "rights" and their "needs." Time will tell, eh?

Littlestone Aug 18, 2006 17:30:42

Replying to Shelby Mustang

Hi Shelby

Nice to get a view from the other side of the fence, and I couldn't agree with you more about the guy who told you to get your kids off the Devil's Chair (there's a time and a place for everything, and if he was telling you just to impress his girlfriend, and make you look small in front of your family, that's really not on). Thing is, there are now signs on all of the gates into the Avebury circle asking people not to climb on the stones - and they are there for a reason. One little butt on a stone, or one pair of shoes climbing over it doesn't sound much, but when you multiply that by the thousands of visitors to Avebury each year you do, actually, have a problem.

There's a beautiful 8th century little meditation hall in Nara, Japan called The Hall of Dreams. It's an octagonal wooden building where Prince Shotoku (the Japanese equivalent of Alfred the Great :-) used to meditate. I used to love going there back in the 60s but so did thousands of others. Little by little The Hall of Dreams began to fall apart under the weight of so many visitors, so in the end they put a fence around it. The stones of Avebury of course are somewhat harder than a little meditation hall made of wood but they are not indestructible.

Nothing lasts forever of course, but do we not have a responsibility to ensure that things of beauty, mystery and meaning last for as long as possible?

Best wishes.