We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something
like:

I think it would if you got 5p back on your empties. Might stop the local
youth smashing their bottles around the Market Cross and shelter...

I doubt it somehow. Youth these days don't seem to be interested in
'small change' - in fact it might be seen as a sort of act of bravado
to smash up things with a tangible value...

Thats true of most, but there are always some that get no pocket money
and are willing to do such stuff.

I didn't get a huge amount of pm - about the same as my pals - and none
of us had any reluctance to go round collecting bottles, etc. We would
pool the lot and divvy it up fairly. That was probably my first
experience of collectiveness.
There was one kid who was a few years younger and he didn't expect to
get a full share - he was astonished and gratified to find he was
entitled to it, as he'd been doing as much as anyone else.