My War Against The Anchor

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” Winston Churchill

On Thursday I began a bit of a war. Actually that isn’t true they started it! The Anchor pub in Hutton previously have never given me any hassle. I was under the general impression that they were reasonable people who were happy enough to let people park up on their car park for five minutes while they pick up their kids from school. However today they decided to try and stop people, but I have no problem with this since after all they have to the right to since it is their property and they can stop people parking there if they want.

However they also decided to cross the line slightly and have a go at people who were not parking on their pub car park. Once again as long as they have a genuine reason to express their anger then feel free to but someone who is stood one meter in to their car park chatting to somebody is not affecting them at all is it? However once again it is their right to not allow people to stand on their land. However surely a shop keeper wouldn’t ask someone to leave a shop just because they are not buying something, surely they would take the opportunity to try and make a sale by advertising their products to the potential customer. However the pub evidently like their customers as much as Bernard Black and decide to scare them off, if that’s the way they like to run their business then fair play, but really one meter if that on to their land from the pavement, that’s a bit pedantic don’t you think and I think the pub’s security runt got what he deserved when he challenged me.

I can’t remember every word of what this bearded full said exactly but I remember he started the conversation with “Are you lost?” which I think is a really stupid thing to say especially when I am stood next to someone chatting to them. I don’t have a problem with people asking stupid questions, some people are to put this bluntly stupid, as a result of this when they ask question it will be a stupid one. However when someone asks me a stupid question in a rude and patronising manner this does annoy me. I think I ignored him the first time he asked but then the second time I think answered with a “no” and then did that thing with my face when somebody says something quite awkward. It is sort of like a muscle spasm of the face but I don’t suppose it is particularly relevant!

He then began shouting at me despite being about two meters away, mentioning something about me standing on private property. It was a complete rant and if he was any closer my face would have been barricaded with his spit. After he had shut up I replied in a calm tone, “And is this hurting anybody?” he turned red like a tomato and I was half expecting another rant from him. But instead he came out with a very profound question, “How would you like it if I was stood in your garden?”, really is that relevant I am stood on his car park (infact it isn’t even his, he is just some moron the owners have employed!) away from all the cars so people can get passed on the pavement. Also not to mention he completely ignored the question I asked him, however out of politeness I decided to answer his question. So I said “As long you weren’t stood on the vegetable patch then I wouldn’t be too fussed if you were.”

Unfortunately this answer seemed to only upset the guy even more! He then began trying to explain to me how metaphorically this car park was his “vegetable patch”. I couldn’t see his point at all and I think I may upset him when I spoke mid-drift of his “Philosophical explanation” by asking how is tarmac was growing! A rendition of the following nursery time may well have been well timed at this moment:

Mary, Mary quite contrary,

How does your car park grow?

With lots of cars and smoked cigars.

And parking lines all in a row.”

Sadly I wasn’t fast enough to come up with this on the spot and if I had said this to him I imagine his fist would have soon been heading towards my face since I was beginning to make him pretty mad. However the situation didn’t result in violence (I reckon I could have had the guy in a fight anyway…) since the manager had noticed there was some trouble and she had come to see what was going down. She came over and asked (slightly more calmly than the security numpty) what was the problem was and I tranquilly explained that I was only standing here for convince sake so as not to get in the way of any pedestrians.

I was quite unsure who’s side she would take, I knew I had put over a better argument than my new best friend but I guessed she would support her staff especially since legally speaking I was in the wrong, which she immediately pointed out. However I did have a reasonable knowledge of the law and pointed out that until she showed me a legal document showing she owned the land ie a deed then I didn’t have to move. She seemed quite unwilling to show the deed saying that it wasn’t necessary to show me the deed which I countered with that therefore it wasn’t necessary for me to move.

There was a moment silence in which I thought of another good point to put across. I asked her if she realised that by asking people to leave her car park (which would be empty if they weren’t there) was impacting negatively on their view on the pub. She just shrugged. So I continued by saying that since the car park was virtually empty instead of sending these people away she should be treating them as potential customers and maybe promoting the pub to them possibly by handing leaflets to them. Clearly she didn’t like to be told how to do her job, since she snapped at me saying: “You have a lot to learn son, and you clearly think you are it, but let me tell you aren’t you just aren’t.” I stood there until she finished and then said the thing she was least expecting to hear, “I completely agree with you.” She flinched like I was about to hit her. I noticed that my lift had arrived at the other side of the road so with the final words I said, “It was very nice meeting you but I am afraid I have to leave now. Good luck with your car park clearing mission!” I said politely and then smiled and walked off.

As I left I heard the woman comment saying: “He clearly has a lot to say for himself” (her fellow staff member applied with a low pitched grunt, which I think sums the guy up to a T) I completely agree with this woman, I do have a lot to say for myself and I think this a good thing. Take for instance every person who is considered to be great who has every lived they have old expressed their opinion. For example Jesus (and no I am not trying to compare myself to Jesus before anyone asks, since would be very arrogant of me since I am neither perfect nor a miracle performer.) He expressed his views and people gathered to listen to him. If he hadn’t had a lot to say then he probably would have been a carpenter just like his farther and the world we live in today would be such a different place since I doubt Christianity would have ever occurred without him being born, anyway whether he lived or not is another question for another blog!

Also take for example John Lennon, if he hadn’t expressed himself through his music and had a lot to say about the state of the world then the world would never have been touched by his music and his views then I doubt the music industry would be the same. See my point? Every person who is considered to be great has expressed themselves some how be it through speech, art, music or any other thing they can. If you can think of any great person who didn’t express themselves please tell me in the comments since I would be quite interested to know if there are any! What I am trying to say is that for the youth of today to be successful then we need to have voices! We need to tell people want we think, we need to stand up and be heard whether our opinion be right or wrong if we don’t have a voice and make mistakes then we will never become great. Do we want to remembered for the generation that did wouldn’t voice it’s self?

I urge anyone reading this who feels they can make change little or small to voice their opinions since young people really need to be heard and not be intimidated by people who think they are bigger and better than them, this last week has really opened my eyes and so many people are just being pushed around by adults who think they are better than the youth of today. I am not trying to lead an uprising and course anarchy or anything like that I am just trying to say just because some one is older than you, that doesn’t mean they are older or better than you. If they think they can walk all over you show them wrong stand up to them and challenge their views.

However I also urge you not to do this against people who are trying to help you such as teachers since they do tend to be right which I have learnt from experience. Furthermore screaming and shouting doesn’t get your point across it just makes you look like a tit. If you are going to argue keep calm and you will find that people actually listen to you when you speak in a composed tone.

 I discovered this Friday morning when walking to school when a parent parked their car up and approached me and told me that she had heard my argument with the Anchor Pub. She told me she agreed with everything I had said and that “I was a credit to my generation” and that more people should express their views and that what I said was said in a very professional way. This is what made me right this blog post. Her praise makes me believe that I am on course to reach one of my goals for this year (see my previous blog post), I believe the fact that what I said influenced the woman enough to stop her car and speak to me is evidence that I am changing the view of the youth of today already.

 However to quote R.L. Stevenson: “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.” I realise that with my views may have also hurt people such as The Anchor staff by reacting to their challenge in the first place but I take comfort in the Winston Churchill quote at the top and I agree with the quote you are always going to make enemies there are oppositions to everything you or I will do. As a result of this I am not going to back down and if they want a war they can have one and I am very sure that our first battle was a victory to me. I was hoping I could email them a link to this blog since I believe any company should receive feedback so they can learn how to improve. Sadly it appears they don’t have a website but the first thing I found when googling “The Anchor Hutton” was quite interesting it appears I am not the only person who have had trouble with these people.  

Anyway, thanks for reading and please tell me what you thought of this blog post by either commenting below or emailing me, my email is octopusox@gmail.com hope you enjoyed reading it.

Chris :)