The Marzipan Effect
Or, how I learned to kickflip
They were building a skatepark so naturally, we were going to break in and shred it.
I said “break in” but this was an outdoor skate park so the only thing that was keeping us out was a temporary fence that wouldn’t have kept out a light breeze. Still, the site had a portacabin maybe 20 yards away, and inside it sat a security guard whose name was Joe.
Joe was an auldboy who would watch us skate around the car park next to the building site. I think he was supposed to keep us away from the entire area but he didn’t seem to care as long as we didn’t climb on any of the machinery or go through the fence. I should say that we were a large group of young boys ranging from 11 to 16 years old so he probably just couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of moving us on.
Joe was good for a bit of banter now and again. We would toss the odd insult at him like, ‘Sitting about on your arse again Joe?’ or ‘Here’s lazy Joe, too daft for a real job’. In hindsight of course I cringe at the stuff I used to say, but back then, I didn't care about what people thought because I was a little shit stain. Joe always found the humour in it though and threw back some insults of his own. ‘I shagged your mum’ was his favourite. It all seemed like good fun.
