Yesterday we went for a long nostalgic walk in the late afternoon sunshine, involving going through Slackcote, past the first house we bought together, where we lived for a decade, where our daughter was born in the main bedroom, and which we only moved out of because with two children the family was just growing out of it. It’s in a little hamlet between the two villages of Delph and Denshaw, always leading to discussion as to which village it belongs to. We once famously went to bed one warm summer night leaving the front door wide open, although the inner was closed, and only discovered it when we came downstairs next morning and wondered why the main room was so light. Oops! I don’t think we could do such a thing in the house we now inhabit. I’m not sure that you could do it now at Slackcote, which has grown a little, with the old mill building now converted into flats and rather more people around.
On our way home we went through Delph’s park and children’s playground. By the river (the River Tame, as it Tameside, runs through the village) a huge bunch of youths were congregating, messing around in the sunshine the way young people do and possibly jumping into the water. Others were arriving by bike and on foot, some of them with small rucksacks - was an English “botellón” outdoor drinking and carousing session about to begin? What was clear was that this lot were definitely not all from one household and not a lot of social distancing was taking place.
As we walked on, a couple of community police officers were heading towards the group. I rather suspect they might have needed to send for reinforcements.
Has those young people decided to follow Dominic Cummings’s example and ignore the advice? Do they even follow the news? Maybe they were just fed up of being in their separate back gardens on such a fine sunny day. The numbers of people who made their way to beaches and beauty spots are perhaps indicative of some of that same quarantine fatigue.
The family next door to us have erected one of those do-it-yourself pergola things in the garden so that they can sit out in the shade, which they duly did for most of yesterday - burgers and barbecues in the shade. One garden further over, the sunbathers continued to work on their tan, with another socially-distanced visit from their grandchildren at the same time. To be fair, the paterfamilias (grand-paterfamilias?) had been busy earlier mowing the lawn. Mostly in our row we seem to have been quite law-abiding (apart from maybe the visiting grandchildren) and stayed home this weekend. But then we are lucky enough to have the garden space to do that.
Discussion still goes on about reopening schools. The proposed June 1st partial reopening looks as if it’s going to be very partial indeed and this article suggests that a September reopening will also be problematical. A full-blown reform of our education system might be needed.
This article has pictures of places where some famous names in the pop music business made their career starts. Small venues like pubs and small clubs have long been the proving ground for would be music stars. And budding musicians have become largely unacknowledged victims of the crisis. With pubs and small venues closed these young musicians have no way of making themselves heard and known and, of course, no source of income. You can’t claim government support for something so tenuous as an incipient career in music. There is always Youtube but I guess it works better if you have already got a foot on the lower rungs of the ladder.
We spent a good part of yesterday evening moving furniture around into an arrangement that made access to our collection of music on vinyl more accessible, while still allowing us to watch TV unimpeded. It’s something we have planned for a while and finally we got around to it. It won’t help the plight of young up and coming musicians but it means we are more likely to play the old vinyl records once more. Another bit of nostalgia!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! Oh, and be sensible, please!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment