Thursday 11 September 2014

The Times they are a'Changin'

Bob Dylan??   If not then I am sure somebody will point out who it was.

My father, who died in the 70's, talked about hoeing a beet field and hearing a noise and running over the field to see a new-fangled motor-car going past preceded by a man with a flag.   Now I read about driverless cars- a thing of the future on our roads.

Sometimes I used to be sent to the Co-op for my mother's shopping.
There was no 'fancy stuff' in those days.   Her weekly order was always more or less the same, with one or two additions if and when they were needed.  (a new tin of salmon, a new tin of peaches and a couple of tins of evaporated milk if we had had visitors, or Persil if the packet was getting empty, or maybe more household soap in the days before detergents and washing up liquids) .

It ran like this:   sugar, butter, marg, lard, tea, camp coffee, yeast (she made her own bread), dried fruit, bacon.   Her vegetables were mainly from the garden or from a man who came round with a horse and cart once a week.   Her meat came from the butcher's shop opposite our house and was often payment for the time she spent preparing poultry for him.   That was it - simple, good fare.

Now look at the range of food in the shops.  The foreign food (my mother was highly suspicious of foreign food and would never eat any which I served up when they came to stay), the twenty different types of tea, a whole line of different sugars (ours came out of a barrel and was weighed into a dark blue sugar paper which was carefully folded around it (can anybody do that folding now I wonder).  The butter was cut out of huge lump of butter in a tub (Danish tub butter I think it was called) and - again it was wrapped specially in greaseproof paper.

Things change.   Things evolve.   Sometimes the change is for the better, sometimes it is for the worse.   We have little control over it.
 A huge combine harvester cut the field opposite us last evening in about an hour - a job that would have taken several days using a binder.

Now a possible mighty change if Scotland vote 'yes'.  Personally I can't get roused about it.  It is for the people of Scotland to decide - let them decide one way or the other, and take the consequences.   Who are we English to judge?

20 comments:

Gwil W said...

Will Great Britain become known as Small Britain? Will Wales follow Scotland. And after Wales, perhaps Yorkshire or Ulster? Maybe an in-between status can be negotiated, something along the lines of the Isle of Man.

George said...

Yes, the times they are a'changin, but they've always been changing and always will be. And, ironically, they're always changing for both the better and the worse. The Buddhist are wise, therefore, to premise their philosophy on the impermanence of all things.

Cro Magnon said...

I totally agree with your last para; it's up to them. I just hope they make the right decision.

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Good day, Pat!
Yes, it was Bob Dylan. And your post also reminds me of the George Harrison album, All Things Must Pass.

Our shopping is very much the same as your mom's used to be. With a few modifications since I can't have dairy, wheat, or gluten. Now, the doctor says low salt. And Ray's diet is low sugar and carbs. So we eat vegetables, fruit, meat, and gluten-free bread and noodles. And besides water and Tetley's English Blend tea, we drink seltzer water mixed with Cranberry juice. And the fat off of a can of coconut milk whips up just like heavy cream! Happy that I found that so we can have it over berries and such.

If I read Crafty Green Poet's post correctly, strictly from an environmental point of view, she seems to think it would be better if Scotland did not become independent. Texas and the southern states always want to succeed from the Union from time to time. Heck, we had a civil war over it. It seems like a long time ago. But, really, it wasn't. I've read some historians who say that, had the south won, America would have become more like Europe with a multitude of smaller countries.
Funny, in the south, the Civil War is still referred to as the War of Northern Aggression.

Today we are remembering the events of 9/11/01. And the ongoing miserable turmoil that has followed in the aftermath. Lord have Mercy.

Anyway, I enjoyed your post today as always.

Waving at you from the other side of the pond, m & jb

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

That is supposed to be "secede" from the Union. "Succeed" is what happens when I write with blurry eyes and agree with Spell Checker.

jinxxxygirl said...

I don't remember days of simple shopping like that...though perhaps my mother does...She is in her 80's. My mother in law served simple food interlaced with some quick cooked options....

Most times i find myself wishing things would slow down... the changes would slow down.... Some times i just think we are all just like a bull in a china shop....running headlong into the future making changes because we can without really thinking if we should..... Hugs! deb

Mary said...

Yes, I do recall the shopping list being a lot like that - and that awful liquid Camp coffee in a glass bottle! My mother somehow always made fabulous meals, and baked amazing cakes, from very few store-bought ingredients, with daily stops at the shops because we didn't have a 'frig. Fresh vegs came from the market garden across the road - milkman delivered to the doorstep early morning. Also we were all slim in those days after WW2 - no over-eating, snacking on junk, and we walked or biked everywhere of course!

Love how you bring all these memories back - thanks so much.

As for the future - this being 9/11 makes me sad and frightened for our children, grandchildren, even still for us. The world is not a safe place that's for sure!

It will be interesting to see what happens in Scotland……

Mary -

Pondside said...

I love it when you share memories of a country childhood. Nearly a generation separates us, as well as an ocean and a continent, but I remember bottled milk delivered by a man with a horse and cart in the city of Edmonton.
It will be interesting to watch the events in Scotland........

Heather said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heather said...

My father remembered seeing the first motorcar driving through Chesham in Bucks with a man with a red flag leading the way. We had a grocer who would visit his customers mid-week and take a note of their orders to be delivered at the weekend. I liked shopping at the Co-op and seeing those overhead cash pots taking the money whizzing along to the office and bringing back the correct change.
I hope the Scots make the right decision for all of us.

angryparsnip said...

When I was little I remember the Milk, Bread, Vegetable Man all came down our alley way. Plus the trinket and rag man.
I have been watching the Scotland referendum and I can't say which way it should go, since I don't live there.
I hope they make an informed choice.
It is a sad day in America today.

cheers, parsnip

Joanne Noragon said...

I am so sorry to realize the modern person who supplies the family meals, or even only their own, cannot cook basic food stuffs "from scratch." There is a health crisis and I attribute it to the chemicals and preservatives that come tumbling out of boxes and bags, and are called food.

Rachel Phillips said...

John Lewis have decided it, along with Asda. The No vote will now surely win.

Frugal in Derbyshire said...

The Scotland issue seems to have aroused an interest in politics, such as we haven't seen for some time. My grandchildren have been wanting to discuss it with me, which is gratifying (I'm quite a politically interested sort of gal)
I SO remember those shopping days. Did your butcher put an extra piece of fat on top of the joint for free? Ours also used to put four links of sausage on top too "for your mother" I wonder what that was about?

Terry and Linda said...

Our neighbors use the huge machines...HUGE to combine. Of course, we don't. They cost $250,000 used.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

mrsnesbitt said...

Ah the co-op Pat and the divvy number. Happy Days.

Becca McCallum said...

I can remember having a corded house phone and 'untwisting' the kinks in the cord when I was bored - now the house phone gets lost down the back of the sofa. I can remember a 'mobile phone' that someone brought to the house once when I was very small - it came in a suitcase. Now even kids have phones that are mini computers, cameras, video and music players. I can remember when even five channels was seen as a big thing - now there are HOW MANY?! And I'm not even that old. Technology (and lifestyle) has changed so much even in the 26 years I've been alive.

I'm from Scotland, and one of the good things about the referendum has been the increase in ordinary people asking questions and engaging in big issues. However there is a nasty 'them and us' mentality that seems to take over, which is very sad.

Hildred said...

The only thing one knows for sure, - change is eternal, and somehow we learn to cope. Although often we look back with great nostalgia.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for joining in.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Change is the only certainty. Maureen is right, my blog post did suggest I don't think Scotland should go independent. I think issues are bigger than nation states and in the near future we have more important things to think about than trying to rebuild a new Inland revenue etc. But we'll need to see which way it goes on Thursday