100 Years Ago

One of the side roads leading down to our local shopping high street was resurfaced today with a fresh new layer of shiny tarmac. Before laying it down, the council's minions stripped the old surface completely with heavy machinery. To do all this work, they first had to clear all the cars from the street then leave it clear once the tarmac was laid and remained soft.




So as I walked down the pavement, I saw the street as it was designed: pristine, unobstructed, clear and safe for pedestrians to walk wherever they wanted. It was wonderful, just like it would have been a hundred years ago, before the tin monstrosities arrived to take over the cities. That street is normally one of the busiest around for parked cars, as it's a residential road of vernacular Victorian terraces, with well-off occupants who own cars, and it's close to that busy shoppingareat as well. Usually, it's got two continuous rows of cars all the way along it, with just a single line for vehicles to drive down.


On my walk to the shops, two people whom I recognised but rarely speak with broke the usual code of just saying Hello, to remark on the original appearance and to say how much they liked it. Of course, like me they were pedestrians; the drivers were having to divert around the closed road. I wonder what will happen in the next hundred years?

:0)