Day 2608 Times gone by

4th October 2024

I was more successful with bus catching than I was yesterday. It arrived when the screen said it would, so I got to Bath early, and whilst I had some time I walked around town. I went into WH Smiths to look around, and it looked dead and uninspiring. It had the feel of a store closing, not how I remembered it. The greeting cards had taken up a lot of the floor area, and the magazine rack was untidy. The upstairs was not any better, most of the floor is taken up with the post office. As a kid, the store had everything, music, videos, toys and craft supplies, as well as books and magazines. It had an attraction, Smiths was THE news agent, sadly, no more.

Further on my travels I passed people sleeping under a doorway, and opposite was a shop manicuring a young girls finger nails, she was certainly under ten years of age. 

The contrast could not be clearer between the haves, and the have nots.

Working my way up Milsom Street, I stopped at the small shopping arcade, a place I used to go often, it had an Alessi shop that I loved. I alway thought the conversion was done well, but that is a sad place, all the decent shops have gone, it feels unloved, and it must be hard for the places still open.

The one thing that can’t be altered is the architecture, there is a feeling of joy as I walked down Pultney Street, and cut through to Henrietta Park. I followed a number of paths through the avenue of trees. A man was giving his little dog some exercise. All he did was hit a ball with a tennis racquet, and this little blighter would set off after it, proudly bringing it back to its owner, who did the same thing again. Poor dog didn’t realise it was pointless, his owner didn’t want the ball. If the animal was smart, it would grab the ball and run in a different direction, then it would be the owner chasing after it.

I noticed there was a garden of remembrance that I didn’t know was there. I walked around reading all the name plaques attached to the wooden benches positioned around the pathway.

For me it was fitting, I was remembering what Bath was like when I was growing up, when it had a toy shop, three record shops, several art material shops, and a couple hi-fi stores.

Now my memories are as faded as those plaques on the benches.

Bath had lost all the things that stimulated children’s minds that feed their creativity.

Now the streets are lined with endless cafes and restaurants, creativity has been replaced by food, and culture has lost out to mindless social media, oh dear.