Snakes & Ladders

My neighbour is worried about the debts her son will accrue during his time as a student at university. She is helping him as much as she can on her income as a child-minder. ‘I mean,’ she says, ‘if they start off owing a lot of money how are they supposed to get on the ladder of life?’

I wonder whether she means the property ladder and whether in England they are one and the same. I think she does mean that. To get on that ladder, he’ll have to get on the employment ladder. There it is to be hoped that his degree will help him. Although, research suggests that for some students their degrees will lead to nowhere in particular except to the constant worry of paying back thousands of pound in loans.
And, the thing about ladders is that you don’t just go up them, you go down them, too.

When I was growing up in south London there was a young footballer so successful he became a local hero. Newly married and needing to supplement his income he became a window cleaner. He was too much of a lad to wear a safety harness (if they existed in the 60s) and he fell from his ladder and was blinded. I remember his wife telling how they were on a bus and her husband accidentally stood on someone’s foot. ‘What’s wrong with you, fucking blind or somefing?’ asked the injured person.

I propose that we abandon all talk of ladders.