Where have all the tangerines gone? Shops used to be full of them. Now all you seem to be able to buy are those satsuma things that look like baggy oranges in need of botox. And they taste of nothing much. Tangerines tasted like concentrated essence of orange velvet dipped in sunshine. I always had one at the bottom of my Christmas stocking. Along with a half crown. Which reminds me - whatever happened to half crowns ... no, not going there, that way madness lies.
They say that in this life you are either a: 'glass half-full' or a 'glass half-empty' type of person, but increasingly I'm turning into a: 'This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was much bigger and it had a pink cocktail umbrella and a small plastic shark' type of person as I sit in the writing garret contemplating the demise of western civilization.
Much of this malcontent has been precipitated by something called Black Friday, another of those American things that has turned up over here and that we seem to have seized upon, along with School Proms and Halloween. When I was growing up in the dark ages, we had sedate school dances, pumpkins were the preserve of fairy godmothers and the coaching trade, and we did not cause GBH to ourselves and those around us in an undignified 24 hour scramble to buy stuff that we have been brainwashed by the retail industry into thinking will enhance our lives.
Given that everything nowadays comes with either a dire health warning or a phone number to call if you have been affected by issues surrounding it, I'm frankly baffled that we eagerly embrace the chance to put ourselves in the way of physical and financial harm for a few material goods. We really are all going to Hell in a handcart, aren't we? Except that I haven't seen any handcarts around for ages. Gone the same way as tangerines and half crowns, I guess.
You are at your scribal best when you are on a rant Ms Hedges. Wonderfully expressed. I feel quite nauseous when I see and read about the naked greed that is exposed on Black Friday. And I agree about the American festivals creeping into English life. Does the world have to be totally homogenised?
ReplyDeleteI get more and more annoyed as I get older. Sigh.
DeleteThe general view in the press, from what I can gather, is that Black Friday isn't catching on over here - in spite of last year's unseemliness and a lot of hype in the shops. So maybe, just maybe, we are able to look at the American shenanigans and say no, this is not for us. (If only we could do the same for Proms and Halloween.)
ReplyDeleteI was in St Albans yesterday - to meet a friend for coffee and the shops were not packed out, so I hope you are right. Mind, I think people are too scared about their financial situation to go mad with their credit cards.
ReplyDeleteEVERYONE needs to see the South Park episode about Black Friday... it says it all.
ReplyDeleteAs for nostalgia ~ as my 60th birthday looms (now that I am on the dark side of 'mid 50s'), I find more and more that the world familiar to me is a forgotten thing. I remember my mother saying, when she was in her 70s: 'I don't like how the world has become. I'm so glad I was born when I was'. I feel the same, now... and I expect everyone does, whatever their age!
Ooh..will see if it's on youtube!
DeleteI hadn't heard of it until this year when I was tasked with advertising a book sale. But that's just me. Apparently it happens here, too. The only event I can avoid here is Christmas! You're so right about tangerines. - Miriam
ReplyDeleteBlack Friday doesn't seem to have reached here in Cornwall, luckily. However it was quite a grey, cold day, does that count?
ReplyDeleteYOU were lucky!
Delete...still ‘an all, m’Lady, fings ain’t wot they used to be ;;;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid the school dance was exactly that, a dance! Yes, you dressed up for it but your parents didn't need to auction their kidneys on ebay to fund your outfit! And it's not just the frock is it? Oh no! It's the hair, the nails, the limo, the make-up...it's every superficial accompaniment you can think of purchased with the intention of your little princess outshining every body else's little princess! Pathetic!
ReplyDeleteThe ever escalating panic to outdo everybody else sickens me and the length some people will go to TO outdo everybody, sickens me! The greed of humanity sickens me, Black Friday being another example of the void of self absorption many are sucked into as they viciously scramble over the other to snatch at one material lump of nonsense or another!
I'll shut up because I'm in danger of never stopping! There's so much more to say regarding all of this...*bites knuckles*
Thanks for getting my blood boiling, Hedges.....as for now? Now I have an urgent need for a tangerine!...Thanks for THAT too!......
Tangerines .....*sigh*
DeleteLovely post - from one ranter to another!
ReplyDeleteI'm getting worse as I age
DeleteTotally agree. We never had Black Friday here in SA, but now we do. Sadly without even a semblance of Thanksgiving first. What a tragedy!
ReplyDeleteAs it happens I managed to pick up an excellent hand cart last Friday, half price only one wheel missing. I can do you a deal if you're still looking for one but you've probably ordered one from Amazon by now. Daughter just told me that Amazon now deliver to tiny lockers in the place of our choice. What's going on? In my day lockers were for smelly gym kit!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Tesco also does this..it is the 'new' way to shop. *rolls eyes*
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