Kid lawyer saves dad
Recently I took the boys on their first wild camping trip on Dartmoor, writes Electric Kevin on his blog. I had picked Postbridge as a good location for mix of open moor, forest and stream. How wrong could I have been ! We pitched by a wooded area and had started our fire, the boys had been running around excitedly for about an hour making noise as excited 8 year-olds are want to do. I was startled by the sound of a 4×4 being driven furiously towards us via a track from the woods – it skidded to a halt by our tent and the middle-aged driver was apoplectic, “You can’t camp here – this is a restricted area and it’s illegal. We live in the cottage behind the trees and all we want to hear is birdsong, not your bloody kids !” I was about to answer in placatory fashion when one of the boys piped up, “Well actually, I can’t do anything illegal because I am only 8 years old – I can’t be prosecuted until I’m 10 and even then I can only be given an ASBO.” Well, I was stunned into silence and in any case I was completely out of the loop – the man was no longer talking to me, he was talking to my lad instead. He pointed his finger at him and said “Well, young man, I don’t expect you to be here tomorrow when I come back and if you are I will be reporting it to the Ranger.” And that was it, off he drove without further ado and we remained at the site.