Change is part and parcel of life after Covid-19
Will everything return to how it was before Covid-19? Anton Rippon suggests people have developed new habits during lockdown that will be here to stay
LOCKDOWN might be easing, but will life ever be the same after Covid-19? Always assuming that there will be an “after”. Jabs or no jabs, we may have to become accustomed to wearing face coverings on public transport.
I do miss the bus. You hear such interesting things, like the two young women debating which Derbyshire police station served the best Saturday breakfast after you’ve been nicked for being drunk and disorderly the night before. Apparently, Chesterfield has much to commend it, but don’t quote me. This is not a personal recommendation, I’m just repeating what I overheard.
I escaped the other evening. Not from prison. Just from the confines of the house for ten minutes. I looked out of the window at a blue sky and I had this sudden urge to take a stroll to the top of the street and back. The televised football was boring, and, although I am a big fan of Bradley Walsh, back-to-back episodes of The Chase was enough for now. This is where lockdown has led us: four matches a day and enough quiz programmes to see us to the end of time.
Yet if life never returns to what we once regarded as normal, there are some improvements, like discovering the true value of internet shopping. In those glorious days before we’d heard of the Wuhan bat market, I occasionally dabbled. But since Covid-19, I’ve become hooked, even for the most mundane items.
Again, though, it is the interaction with fellow humans that I miss. The caring young shop assistant who advises me to “mind how you go, sweetheart”. Or the one who thanks me for waiting, even though I’ve walked straight up to their till.
I’ve noticed a few shortages of late. Is that to do with the pandemic? Or is it a result of Brexit? I don’t want to start a debate on that, but it has to be one or the other. I can’t imagine that, unless it took a wrong turning from the upper Ebro, my first-choice Rioja was stuck aboard the Ever Given in the Suez Canal.
Still, it isn’t as bad as 1946 when, emerging victorious from the Second World War in a generation, we faced not times of plenty, but food rationing reduced to levels that were unknown even when the U-Boat war against British shipping was at its height. Even bread was rationed.
The Derby Evening Telegraph’s Derby and Joan columnist said that the feeling experienced by mothers with whom they had spoken on the subject of bread rationing was one of “utter weariness”. “I will write to the Derby MPs and give them a piece of my mind,” one mother told the newspaper. I doubt it had much effect.
Today’s shortages are as nothing compared to those faced by that hardy post-war generation. But if 4oz of margarine had to last all week, at least people were free to go wherever they pleased. The restriction on movement has probably been the hardest thing to bear this last year, especially during those dismal winter months when we were again tightly locked down, and no sooner was it dawn than it was dusk.
Having encouraged us to isolate by stressing the cost to ourselves and to the NHS if we did otherwise, the Government may find it difficult to persuade some people to venture out again. Not the libertarians (and the just plain selfish) who took no notice in the first place, but the ordinary law-abiding folk who just want to do their best for the greater good. You can all too soon find yourself in a rut. I wonder how many will not now return to pubs and restaurants, and what number will eschew even click-and-collect for the still easier option of click and wait for the delivery driver. Working from home won’t help the high street either.
Yes, life will be different from now on …
■ Anton Rippon’s local books are available from www. northbridgepublishing.co.uk