A Simpler Life

Tomorrow morning our garbage is collected, so everyone puts their garbage bins out on the street the evening before. When I came home from work today I put mine out, and everyone else's was already lined up. The street was so full today that there was almost no room for my bin. Goodness knows where they all came from this week!

This is the collection for the recycling waste. Our garbage is split up into recycling waste and what's called residual waste, which gets collected next week.



Just as I was lining up my bin, an elderly lady came along with a Zimmer frame pretty loaded with shopping bags. She asked if all the bins were from just our street. I said yes, it's pretty full today! Then she stopped and we had a really long conversation, and she was standing all the time holding her Zimmer frame, with all the bags. I have to say, even I could have done with sitting down, so goodness knows how she was coping.

She must have been well over 80. Maybe she was even 90. But apart from the Zimmer frame and obvious walking problems, she was top fit! She was pretty upset about the garbage. She said that in the days when she was young, you burned your garbage, and things like potato peel and remains of food, etc. you took straight to the farmer. There wasn't anything else back then, she said. It was a much simpler life.

I told her it was recycling waste, that it got sorted and they turned the paper and stuff into a new product. She looked at me like I was a nut to believe that, and frankly she could be right!

She didn't live in the town center. She said she took a taxi once a week to come into town, and then she walked back with the Zimmer frame. I tried to persuade her to let me drive her home, but she said she needed to walk, to keep healthy. But she thanked me and said she hoped she would see me again.

I hope I will see her again too. She was really interesting and smart, and I was struck by how very, very pretty she was. It is strange how some people can retain their good looks for so long and look so much better than many people who are half their age. I suppose there is some gene responsible for that!

When I got home, I felt a bit ashamed. Sometimes I moan so much about things, but I don't have to use a Zimmer frame to get around. And sometimes I have no patience - I get annoyed if the Internet is a little slow! I guess I am the product of a whole different world than that lady's. Or a whole different time, when it was a simpler life.