4.4.20 A Changed World

Earlier this year, I was pleased to have had a visit from my niece one weekend - Friday afternoon to Sunday.  I dropped her off at the bus station on Sunday in time for the National Express vehicle to take her a couple of hundred miles.  This necessitate a short drive into town, and I of course walked her to the terminal to wave her off.  This little excursion for me raised some issues - not for her, but for me.

The location of the bus station meant a need to park, and so I made use of a Sainsbury's car park, and my niece had time to nip in and get a drink for the journey.  On the way home, soon after, I recalled a number of elements in my efforts to see her off, that made little sense, and highlighted the massive differences in the world, compared to when I was her age.

1. The need to park at all.  There is no drop off facility at all; in the old days, it was always possible to simply drop someone off, be that at a bus station, train station or even airport.  These days, even access to the road closest to the relevant place is restricted, and unless you are driving a taxi, there's a fine looming.
2. Sainsbury's was open.  When I was my niece's age, there was no such thing as a supermarket being open for business on a Sunday.
3. The car park was a pay and display.  Yes, the first fifteen minutes was free but then it was chargeable.  Having to pay for parking in a Sainsbury's is certainly a massive change from my twenties, when no such arrangement would have been considered.
4. Water.  We entered the shop and she picked up a bottle of water - Evian - and took it to the checkouts. It is so sad that water is even for sale; this was only just becoming a 'thing' in my day, and only Perrier was knocking around.
5. The cost.  It would have freaked me out back then to know that someone would pay £1 for a small bottle of water.
6. Favourite.  My niece declared that Evian is her "favourite" water.  How on earth did such a view ever need to come about?
7. Self service.  The checkout was actually a self-service scanning point.  Again, such a change, and I could never have imagined this when I was her age.
8. Card payment.  Perhaps rather more of a shock would have been that a card could be used to pay for a purchase of just £1.00 - and not even that!  The fact that it could be contactless!
9. Mobile.  Even more mind-blowing would have been the thought that nothing would be needed other than the wave of a hand holding a mobile phone, although when I was her age, mobile phones did not exist, let alone purport to be 'smart'.
10. Bags.  Not that one was really needed, but bags being chargeable was something I could not have imagined either.

So much is different now.  All those years ago, life was so much simpler.  Now it's all a bit mad, and the levels of progress (if that's what it's called) are really quite amazing.  How could I ever have foreseen: that I would have to find somewhere to park, that it would be pay and display, in a Sainsbury's that was open, that we'd need a bottle of water, that it might be classed as "favourite", that it would be a pound, that paying would be self service, that payment would be by a phone, and that a bag if needed would cost money.  Blimey.

...