Terrible Teddy Boys

Only four of us were from the West Indies — two from Guyana and another guy from Trinidad. That guy came originally for two years but when I met him, he was already for nine years. He complained about everything in London — racial discrimination, victimisation, his class mates, the lecturers, the awful weather, loneliness and those terrible teddy boys.

He defined them as “White hooligans. Young men. They have long hair and side burns. Move about in small gangs, three or four. Looking for trouble and ready to beat up spades like me. And you too. When they see your brown skin and curly hair, they will take you for some Mediterranean man or an Arabian or something.” And he burst out laughing at his own joke. Then he pulled out a newspaper and showed me the head line, “Pakistani killed in tube.” The smaller print read, “Teddy boys arrested.”

He explained that “tube” is the underground railway system and many students when travelling like to seek out the empty carriages to read. The teddy boys walk from the first carriage to the last looking for foreign black people to provoke. He declared, “That Pakistani young man was studying and they beat him to death with knuckle dusters and blackjacks. Simply because he was not white and he was an achiever and what were they? Nothing but white punks!”

My Trini friend had that to say about the teddy boys, but Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia stated, “The British Teddy Boy (also known as Ted) subculture is typified by young men wearing clothes that were partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, styles which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after World War II.

“The subculture started in London in the 1950s, and rapidly spread across the UK, soon becoming associated with American rock and roll. Originally known as Cosh Boys, the name Teddy Boy was coined when a 1953 newspaper headline shortened Edward to Teddy.”

It goes on to say, “The US film Blackboard Jungle marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown at Elephant and Castle, south London in 1956, the teenage Teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the cinema’s aisles. After that, riots took place around the country wherever the film was shown.

“Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival gangs which were often exaggerated by the popular press. The most notable were the 1958 Notting Hill riots, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community.”

Once, I had a rather brief encounter with three rough teddy boys. One morning when the annual inter-collegiate rowing race dating back to 1829 between the rival universities, Oxford and Cambridge, on the River Thames was nearing its end in London, I was walking alone through a lonely area heading for the river bank when these fellows standing tall on a mound shouted across to me, “Hey Paki. Loight or dawrk?”

In an instant, my mind flashed to the Pakistani murdered by teddy boys and I noticed that one of the guys who had his leather jacket opened, was wearing a light blue sweater. Immediately, I shouted back, imitating the best I could a cheerful “cockney” accent, “Loight.” The head Teddy replied, “Bully for you old boy!” I knew for years listening to the BBC commentary that Cambridge wore light blue jerseys and Oxford used dark blue.

Magistrate: The surveillance camera shows that you entered Exclusive Boutique on five successive nights and stole a dress on each occasion. Guilty or not guilty?

Thief: Guilty, your honour.

Magistrate: But why a dress every night?

Thief: My wife, didn’t like the dresses.