Yesterday was a strange day, in the morning it was
lovely sunshine and we were able to undertake some minor gardening tasks,
mowing the lawn, taking back a hedge – that sort of thing. Then as soon as we
had our lunch outside it started to rain, and was basically miserable for the
remainder of the afternoon, lightening up slightly in the evening. Well Marion
and I felt virtuous having completed our tasks for the day.
So without more ado I suggested an early evening
visit to our local pub, the Nags Head. This is not something that we do
regularly, indeed it is probably over a year since we last visited this hostelry,
a confession I have been once more with Laura when we sat one evening in the
corner. The pub serves excellent beer (real ale of course) and traditional pub
snacks like crisps, and peanuts. It has not changed in décor for twenty years
and is certainly in no sense corporate.
The pub was busy but not too much so we bagged a
comfortable seat, immediately Marion entered into conversation with at least
two people. Then some old friends of ours came in with their dog so we joined
them for half an hour. By the time we had returned home we had a couple of
drinks and a most enjoyable social evening.
Now my foreign readership might think that this is an
everyday event in England, and indeed twenty years ago it would have been. By
that I mean the English pub not our drinking!!! A pub like the Nags Head is
though becoming an endangered species, and really although it shows evolution
it is quite sad. The pub where everybody meets is the cliché of television, The
Rovers Return in Coronation Street, the eponymous Cheers. It is a place where
the ups and downs of everyday life are mulled over, an anchor for the community
like the church (incidentally another threatened institution).
Why is the traditional English pub disappearing, I
suppose first and foremost it is economics, people increasingly drink at home,
or when they go out they look to have a meal as well, hence the rise of the
gastro-pub. We are prime examples of this, we frequently go out to eat, but if
we decide to have a drink more than often crack a bottle of good wine at home. Therefore
there are not enough customers for a traditional pub to survive on the sale of
beer and pork scratchings alone.
I am not suggesting any sort of intervention as these
trends take their course, however it will be an institution that I think we
will regret once it has gone. It maybe symptomatic of the gradual breakdown of
community, or am I being too strong. Interested to hear any comments. Meanwhile
cheers!!!!
I wonder if the pub was ever a place for more than men to meet and be sociable of a random evening. For example, we like going to the pub, but could never go on the off chance, we would need a babysitter!
ReplyDeleteI both agree and disagree. The pub on Saturday was about equally split between men and women. However the age profile definitely erred the wrong side of 50. I am afraid that you will not be able to be spontaneous for several years yet, but you do have two beautiful girls as compensation.
DeleteI menat more in the past - if you went in of a Tuesday evening, it would have been mainly (exclusively?) men, something that is less common these days
DeleteOh I see your point, now it is full of lady choir members and hipster book clubs!!
DeleteNigel, what a wealth of food for thought you have served us for this evening's dinner - thank you! We are just back from PEI, I am catching up on reading, and Gaelan is home for dinner, all makings for a delightful next few hours, with Bob at the grill with garden produce and goat burgers. I see a theme to your last few posts. To me they center around community. Belonging is one of the four or five basic human needs, once food and shelter are met (I think power, love, and fun are among the others). A sense of belonging, whether it is a committee engaged in progress toward a common goal, or a good chat with neighbors over a beer, both instill a sense of belonging leading to a sense of purpose. I think if folks have a sense of purpose they are less likely to use alternatives such as addictive substances to meet these basic needs. What you observe in England is also happening here in Vermont, one of the last places to hold annual town meetings and depend on volunteers for school boards, fire departments, EMT services. Our size has enabled us to lead a community based life a bit longer than some other places, but even now, the efficiency of centralization in services is wearing that away. So the question for me is what will replace the traditional means of community engagement and how do we ensure as many as possible of us engage?
ReplyDeleteI hope that you had a great time in PEI. I agree with you about a sense of community, but ironically it is those areas where the community has been decimated that most need it. The lesson again is that community is organic it cannot be generated top down. Too often in England we are using community to replace the functions that government should provide. Also there is a huge lack of trust in devolving power to the community.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the use of community, via charity as an example of the means, to serve needs that are really the responsibility of government, to ensure equity of access, human dignity. I'll have to think about whether community can only result from an organic bubbling up. I do think that government policies can encourage or discourage it. I wonder, for example, about the effect that stiff drunk driving laws has had on pubs and the sense of community they foster. Not that I am arguing for loosening the laws! Yet it may be an example of policy having a deleterious effect on community.
ReplyDelete