I have often had conversations most likely with older people, where they have asked me: ‘Did you drive along the high street?’
No no… I came along such and such a street to get here:
or ‘Where have you left your car?’
I parked across from the newsagent.
The response to my reply is something like: I remember when my friend used to work in the butchers there! Or that used to be an apple orchard!
The statement rarely connects to much I know about as I have no memories or local knowledge and its hard to respond with an empty information pool. As I don’t know their friend nor did I throw apples from long range at unsuspecting pedestrians passing on the other side of Enysford Close.
The reason I am explaining this is because I did exactly that to two building workers I encountered walking over the fairways this afternoon. They appeared surprised to see me walking along rather gingerly across the site for fear of slipping over in the soft mud.
‘you alright mate’. And they looked at me in that way that shows they expected a reply!
Yeh….. I was re-walking the path I used to bring my dog along when we walked here together…. this was a disused golf course a while back.
I could see by their faces this not going to go much further as a conversation as they don’t care about my memories or sentimental associations to what is now an epic quagmire carved up in some places by plant machinery to resemble Ypres.
I noted their blank faces and followed up with, ‘it wasn’t so fekin muddy then’.
‘no…. full on wellies job fella’. Which led onto an exchange where they told me they were constructing the car park and then onto the football, hockey, tennis pitches over there. They also said that the company they worked for thought work would have to start in the new year because of the weather. They were only sorting out the public footpath fencing. Then suggesting the footpath would go altogether as building progressed, and you might have walk along the road right over there!
Accepting change seems a difficult thing – or is it age related?
It was more like Passchendaele than the golf course I remember!
Next time I go over there I will visit the small finished section and see how festive the new residents to the estate are? Look and see how much in the way 0f Xmas decorations are up.
