What happened?

Cherry

By Parson Thru

Wed, 11 Sep 2019
  • 1796 reads
8 comments
 

Changed a bit ‘round here since I was a kid

[Pedalling]

Who can afford these houses now?

T-34 SUVs power from driveways
- school run, perhaps, or gym

Neat, modern dimensions lost
among the anti-aesthetic practicality of extensions

New, rosy-red and fresh, these bricks drew a generation from adjacent council estates
in the search for improvement

Mortgages laid before newlyweds and savers
whose parents had escaped the condemned slums

How quickly the benevolently named streets
of social cottages had lost their appeal

Factory wages with paid overtime
brought these walls and lawns within reach

Steady office salaries parked a Morris or Ford on the drive

The estate pub pressed shoulder against shoulder at the bar

Wire fences leaked children between gardens.

The front gardens are overgrown or shingled now

Hardstanding

Rear gardens buried by ostentatious footings
where twelve foot burlap encloses and imprisons

Curmudgeonly, I know

Progress

A brave new world

But I wonder what happened to all the ordinary folk?

[Pedalling]

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Comments

Submitted by lenchenelf on

"Wire fences leaked children between gardens" a glorious line that epitomises the stagnation of social change and exchange.

best

L xx

 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi lechenelf.

Thank you. Very kind of you.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thank you for the cherries! X

Parson Thru

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I liked the line about the children leaking too – freedom to roam between gardens and group outdoor play. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

"brought these walls and lawns within reach"

"The front gardens are overgrown or shingled now"

 do you remember when front gardens were rich with flowers,full of the gardener's heart and soul? Now people concrete or some other hard surface. Sometimes a flat halfway up a block bursts with colour, every inch of railing has a basket attached, pots overflow, where someone retired who used to have a garden, crams all their knowledge and passion into 2 soil-less souless metres and brings joy to anyone who catches sight of it in the surrounding bleakness.

"Hardstanding" as you say

I liked children leaking, too :0)

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Di. Yes, you're right.

Do you know what I remember? I remember when the council estates had a broad range of people living in them. Sure, some streets were worse than others (Peterhill Drive, Spalding Avenue), where the council parked the "problem families". But there were beautiful gardens in many of the streets, front and back (veg). Thatcher blew all of that to pieces in the name of ideology. The divisions that are destroying this country now were set in motion by her. And they want a f-ing statue to her. Burn in hell, I say. Blair can be chucked on the pyre for good measure. We really lost something there.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

It would get covered in worse than pigeon poo if they did, though

It would have been OK if they had built new houses to replace the ones they sold, but just saw them as assets to be stripped.

Nigel Lawson was in charge of money wasn't he? And he claims climate change is fake. Was all about grab whatever you can and sell it, so you can claim you are balancing the economy. Then imply anyone who wants community back is a communist

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Once we realise that stealing wealth and shoving it in a tax free fund is all those people are interested in, the rest is easy to work out. Shame they're stealing our quality of life in the process. And so it goes.

Parson Thru