Once in a Lifetime
I have always been interested in history, where we came from, what was the origin of my surroundings and how did I get here.
Getting a distinction at O level in History, I thought things happened and took time to change………..wrong!!
Margaret Thatcher changed our society in 10 years, we are no longer caring for others just walk on people to get to the top…….not my style.
Also I wonder if my mum or her ancestors saw so much change in their lifetime, maybe since the Victorians we have. People do not like change, like me they appreciate Status Quo.
I remember walking round Church Road Willesden with a shopping bag. Susie the dog would help herself to greens on the greengrocers stall as we passed with one swoop, yes a veggie dog!!! There were butchers, no supermarkets, grocers, fish monger, newsagents toy shops, cycle shops, pie and mash shop. There were off licences too, alcohol sales were limited and controlled, so much for free enterprise.
Now the Supermarket created by Tesco in the 70’s has killed off the smaller shops. Now we don’t have High Roads, we have shopping malls and cars queuing into car parks 7 days a week. Is that progress or greed?
The town landscape has changed, not for the better. I am now in sleepy Thrapston, a place I never heard of 2 years ago, and I dare say many still have not. But at least here there is still England’s pastures green, it has a small high street empty on a Saturday afternoon. We too have charity shops that have filled the vacancies left after Supermarket suffocation. But we have a quaint tea shoppe, and those are from a by gone era.
School friends houses are now underpasses, so is the Cambridge Pub where Jimmy Greaves Pat Jennings and the rest of the Spurs team would drink after the match. Some pubs have even transformed into McDonalds and fast food outlets instead of fish and chips or pie and mash. As I drive around, I can’t say things are better because they are newer. Some planners and architects should be put against a badly designed wall and fired. Like the scilly isles roundabouts in Hemel Hempstead, perhaps they had shares in car insurance. I do remember being in my 20’s, yes I can still, and not liking antiques but modern furniture and how my tastes have changed. I have visited Ikea once, yuk, rubbish, not for me. I like things properly made.
So bigger is not better, its like a dinosaur, and reaction times are not knee jerk, communications get lost on the way too. Sharper Image came and went. That was small , just like the small shopkeepers, it could not compete with multi nationals, but that was not to say it was crap. Number 2 in the video charts once, 2nd only to Walt Disney, see 2nd again.
Also shop names come and go . 99 years for FW Woolworths. My first job while still at school apart from that newspaper round. MFI furniture, well there is no loss. Dewhurst the butchers chain went a long time ago. I used to get cases against them.
Cars are more reliable today but all our makes have gone bar 2 that struggle to survive, When I was a kid we made for the world and gave to the world, now look at us eating McDonalds hamburgers.
Even my old school was demolished…………..bastards.
Its not all doom and gloom, but I have no time for this political correctness, say it as it is, I believe, call a spade a spade, at least it’s honest.
To be contd
