Scarfies and other amazing animals
Posted by stocky on February 28, 2009
The “scarfie” in his natural inviroment DUNEDIN
{SCARFIE a term originating in Dunedin in the late 1960’s to describe a Otago University student due to the fashion of the day being a very long scarf worn with several turns around the neck}
Though it may have migrated from as far north, as the far north, speak several different languages from several diferent north island towns and dress from the local OP’ shops or go totaly up market shop from the Sally’z the “Scarfie” for all intents and purposes is a Dunedinite for 9 months of each year of the five most formative years of it’s young adulthood
DUNEDIN with its coming of age challenges like the “Cook-athon” [and this has nothing to do with the kitchen, for the uninitiated the captain cook or the COOK is a local hotel with a vast history say no more, nudge,nudge, wink know wot I mean??? ] the thursday afternoon smoke a splif protests [recently infiltrated by undercover police, good to know your tax dollars are being spent in the big crime areas] and [one of my personal favourites], the freezing winters, the hills that seem steeper than they were yesterday, and the general drink-athon mayhem each thursday through saturday nights
and this years big one [so far] is the main street toga riot as it has become known
The local residents however as I myself have mixed feelings when it gets out of hand and fires are lit in the streets and Togas are splattered wth fece etc
What nerks us everyday folk the most is that even “IF” these guys get put through the court system for their behaviour its slap on the hand with a wet bus ticket for them
BUT totaly different consequence should a bunch of our local lads get out of hand at a party or too many get together at beach bonfire, or start a wet T-shirt challage by throwing cold water on the nearest girl in a T-shirt [it’s tittie time again…]
This is why we both love and hate our “scarfie” That colourful diverse character who comes in and treats our town like his toilet
We love that he brings with him vast amounts of cash to lubricate the wheels of comerce in our fiscaly frozen part of NZ
He rents a house that you couldn’t get a family of fleeing refugee cock roach to consider living in and pays exorbatant rents, he keeps burger bars, fish and chip shops, the golden arches, kfc and the local pot dealers in business[haha] not to mention the entire infrastructure that is the university, so the imput can be measured in the tens of millions
Dunedin would be DEADEDIN with out the anuaul scarfie migration, and the entertainment they provide at the local rugby/ cricket matches couldnt be brought for bucks of the mega variety
BUT, theres always a butt, and broken bottles and discarded bodily fluids in funny scrunched up rubber things, stacks of rubbish bags left to the roaming packs of dogs gambling their eyes and limbs with the ferral cats for territory
no its not so bad as all that, the cats and dogs worked out their territory long ago [haha]
The situation has become worse over the last five years before that there was always parties etc but nothing that turned into a riot, there was waste but not piled up so high the council has to put two rubbish runs per week through the area to keep it seemly, somethings changed
There has become a them and us attitude slipping into the mix
We understand some if not all of the fun, hell I even enjoy a lot of it
But if you’re going to use the town as a toilet the least you could do is flush before you leave