stuckton by katharine eastman

Yesterday a friend and I returned to near Fordingbridge and this time we wandered around Stuckton and visited another person and together we watched an old film and it was while watching it that I had another of those moments when you understand how the country has become so shit - just a tiny insight, nothing original, something everyone else has noticed too.

A man on the screen had a change of plans and he turned round and there was a bus coming along the road and he just stuck his arm out and the bus stopped and he got on board and climbed to the top and a woman came up to him and they talked about a ticket and life more broadly for a minute and then she took his penny and turned the handle and a ticket came out.

And there, in those moments, I saw how people aren't happy any more. Well yes, they can still be - when the sun comes out. But not much of the time. And I don't know what the big global capitalist agenda is, but it seems to be to send us oldies to Africa and swap round with those who want to come here, and I do like the idea, I love the sunshine, indeed I am baffled why anyone wants to come here.

Because they are too late. The good times have gone. They were last here back when bus drivers could stop wherever they liked if they were in a good mood - which they mainly were - pick up people who worked on their whims, dropping off old ladies who wanted to be near their homes. When travelling on a bus needed you to talk to at least one person, one person who usually wasn't in a huge hurry, one person wandering around the bus with time on their hands, who could chat to favourites and the lonely.

Today bus travel - you have to be at the right stop - and they're spaced further apart. And you don't need to talk to anyone. Wave your card. Sit down. Press a button. Stand up. And you're off. A friend of mine, who travels by bus even more than I do, says that she often notices that no one says Thank You to the driver when they get off. I must admit that I find most people do say Thank You. She might be deaf. She might just be even more pessimistic then me.

But it is another example of why/how life just isn't the relaxed friendly fun that it used to be. Jobs and the world of employment are like that too, but far far worse. There is no leeway anymore. I could report a driver if she stopped at a wrong place. I could video her doing it. Just for the hell of it. Well obviously I wouldn't, and I couldn't (not having one of the gadgets that can video things).

But I could live forever without needing to speak to anyone ever again. Nothing and no one can be as entertaining and informative as our gadgets. But things that are entertaining and informative are boring and depressing. I would rather get lost, know little about what is happening, know I could do almost anything and then turn round and if there chanced to be a bus coming along I could just stick my arm out and it would stop and within a few seconds I would be sitting down and talking to someone who actually quite enjoyed her job because I was talking to her and she was talking to me and now I've gotta reason now I've gotta reason -=

photo cemetery near Stuckton yesterday