'Some Nostalgic Thoughts'

As I have been 'laid up' for three days now with a cold I have had plenty of time to think and that is both good and bad (as we all know). I've managed to do most of my Christmas shopping this year now and have done most of it online. It pains me to do that really but I went into Hastings town centre the other week with a voucher to spend and a specific thing in mind I wanted to spend it on. After visiting, H.M.V., W H Smiths, Argos and one or two others, however I could not find anyone who stocked what I was after! Walking around the town 'with a purpose' and visiting REAL shops and seeing and touching REAL items felt really good and I got much more of the sense of Christmas but at the end of the day I came home empty handed...

It's such a shame how our High Streets are 'falling away' everywhere and Christmas loses some of its magic when you 'shop' in front of your computer screen but the decline in the amount of retail outlets and the fact that you CAN get pretty much anything that is generally available anywhere online means that it is now very hard to support local traders. It's not so bad if you are looking for something in the arts & crafts line as Hastings (The Old Town especially) is GREAT for that kind of thing but other than food or other perishables these days it is so much easier to find what you want online...

I do miss the sense of excitement, the festive atmosphere and the sign of the streets PACKED with shoppers all carrying carrier bags at this time of year though. Stress might have been a factor for a lot of the people shopping back then but the sights and sounds of Christmas used to be EVERYWHERE! Kings Rd in St Leonards was such an exciting place to be when I was a kid at Christmas time and all of the shops (both big and small) went to a lot of trouble to try and attract customers and every shop you visited would be laden with tinsel! There used to be carol singers in the streets at certain times and the 'Sally Army'  would turn up and play as well - Christmas shopping was a social thing but it was also something that could be enjoyed - especially when you got a thrill finding that 'something special you didn't know about' for someone. These days that rarely, if ever happens as its almost impossible to NOT KNOW about something due to either the 'bot' on Google or Facebook working out what you like and 'throwing' the right ads your way...

I guess that's not all a bad thing and I have bought items that I 'seriously wanted but would probably never have known about otherwise' because of those ads but its rather like winning the lottery and being able to buy anything you want to - without the thrill of the chase or discovery somehow it doesn't mean as much, you know?

The other thing I have been 'nostalgic' about recently is a wage packet! (lol) It will be a DECADE next year since I got paid a wage (other than my once yearly 'collecting' pot!) and I certainly miss the freedom my festive wages at Mason's Music used to give me to enjoy Christmas! My old boss, was a real 'good un' and he always treated us very well at Christmas with a cash bonus, a present AND a 'meal out on the firm'. We used to have to work like galley slaves for about a month though up until the Christmas break because the orders just kept piling in! I used to get a perverse delight at counting how many orders behind we were on the boss's desk - much to his and the rest of the staff's irritation - but only really because it used to spur me on to keep going when I was pretty knackered! I've always been one for a 'lost cause' (hence 'The Clean Up Man') and somehow taking on the world and  STILL winning has always motivated me.

Sadly, the business I used to work for itself has now closed (another victim of the Internet age) but I do still see my old boss occasionally, which is nice...

Oh well, who knows what 2019 will bring? I don't hold out much hope for a return to earning cash nor can I honestly say that I think it will be a good year but you HAVE to live in hope, don't you?

If you have any thoughts about 'the old days of Christmas High Street shopping' do share them with me. They say nostalgia is all you have as you get older so it would be good for both of us to know that there's 'someone else out there' who understands! (lol)