Phone fun
We were early teens -- 12 or 13 maybe -- when we found out that (at that time) if you called someone and didn't put the 'phone down, they couldn't hang up on you: you'd still be there if they picked the receiver up again.

It was Sunday night, the only place open was the off-licence on the high street so we got the number and called from a nearby 'phone box (near enough that we could see in the shop window). We shouted names and so forth, then when he threatened to call the police we gleefully waited as he put the 'phone down, picked it up again and dialled. We could hardly contain our mirth when, after he'd dialled and said his piece, we flung yet more obscenities at him.

Of course he wasn't a complete dimwit, and it didn't take him very long to work out that the gang of giggling youths clustered around the 'phone box across the street might in some way be connected to what was going on with his phone. Red in the face and literally spitting with rage (I've never seen anyone so angry, before or since) he came charging out of his shop. We stood our ground for about 5 seconds -- until it became clear that he really did mean to do us some physical harm -- and then scarpered.

The other people I was hanging around with went on to become local troublemakers, and one even landed in prison. But to be honest, I never really did have much heart for rebellion -- especially if it involved physical peril -- so that's about as rowdy as my teenage years ever got. Frankly I was far too busy playing crappy computer games and exploring the new-found delights of masturbation.
( reallywittyname veraciously conspues lexiphanicism on, Thu 19 Jul 2007, 16:15, Reply)