There was a time for calendars

WHATEVER happened to calendars – the beautiful, colourful calendars people would hang lovingly on their walls?

In the past, usually from October, we would receive calendars from businesses and enterprises which we supported.

These would be your local butchery, hardware store, grocery store, pharmacy and dry cleaners.

These used to be beautiful calendars which were also very educational.

On entering a room one’s eyes would be drawn to the calendar hanging on a wall, with pictures of faraway places.

These calendars even enhanced dull rooms through their beauty.

These calendars would inform one of the range of mountains, deepest and longest rivers, political events, famous sports personalities, leading politicians of the past and anything that was of importance.

At the end of the month you didn’t tear the page from the calendar and throw it away. It would be folded over and preserved to be admired later. Schoolchildren also used them to cover their books while the tough guys who used to work in engineering firms cut out the pages showing scantily dressed women to paste on the greasy and oily walls. This supposedly inspired them to work harder. Today’s calendars are a disappointment. It’s like someone picked up cardboard from a dustbin and scribbled the 12 months.

Is this also the effect of inflation?