Don’t go down memory lane

From: Margaret Smith, Westwood Road, Scarborough.

ON a recent visit to a new hairdresser, my regular one having retired, I found myself standing in a shop where, as a child, I bought my sweets with pennies given to me by my late grandmother.

Next to the shop is a passage that leads down to the back of what was once my grandmother’s house and back gate.

With mixed feelings and against advice, I decided to take a trip down memory lane for old time’s sake.

I soon learned the reason for being advised not to go. I can’t begin to put into words my feelings at the sight of the rubbish that filled the length of the passage, including the piles of dog mess.

My thoughts were of the decent, hard working people who had lived there in my grandmother’s day, they didn’t have the luxury of today’s labour saving white goods and gadgets. What they did have was pride and respect. Pride in their homes and respect for others.

There can be no excuse for throwing rubbish over a wall with the attitude of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

This is not an isolated problem. It seems to be a way of life and not one to be ignored, whatever the cost.

I won’t be going down the passage again for a nostalgic look over my grandmother’s gate, but I will always have fond memories of her hanging out whiter than white sheets, washed by hand in her pristine whitewashed yard and sweeping the passage that is now being used as a tip ‘for that was her way of life’.