The return to the classroom this week has once more got us thinking of how things have changed over the years.
And not always for the better…
Back to school, it was dreaded but still anticipated, often hard to distinguish which outweighed the other.
Two months of freedom. It felt like we didn’t want it to end. And is it a false memory or did it always seem to be warmer and sunnier back then? Or was that just because we spent so much more time outdoors? Away from the video games, away from technology? Up from early morning, enjoying the summer holiday telly – Why Don’t You a staple among them – and then followed the show’s advice in pursuit of ‘something less boring’. Outside we went, for the day, regularly having to be sought out and ordered home before it got fully dark.
But that aside, while the holidays were great – there’s no denying it – there was also the excitement of meeting up again with school friends too after such an absence.
We didn’t all live on the same street and there was two months of news to catch up on, after all.
Nowadays, the social media that we all rely on and turn to does the exact reverse of what it purports to do. Yes, we can keep in touch with people not close at hand and see everything from where they went on holiday to pictures of what they’ve had for breakfast.
But while we have our noses stuck in our phones being ‘social’ surely we are being exactly the opposite. We are no longer living in the moment.
Armagh was blessed with so many, many great cafés back in the day. And what craic was to be had going back to school, getting through the ‘work’ element of the day and then venturing to one or another for a catch-up.
How many times were you asked ‘are you going up the street’ after school?
Abandoning schoolbags and sports kits, most likely outside the Ulsterbus ‘depot’ of the day at Mall West. (Disclaimer: If ever a word punched above its weight it was ‘depot’ to describe what was essentially a single room waiting area in a cold and drafty building bereft of heat, with hard wooden seating waiting to mete out a sad and cruel torture).
So where then shall we go? The Lantern on Scotch Street, Tino’s on Thomas Street, the Pub with No Beer, same street, further down. The Downtown, on the corner of Dobbin Street and Linenhall Street, The Crow’s Nest, upstairs on Scotch Street, round about where the Chinese takeaway is today. Cafolla’s, across from the Tourist Information Centre, or the Wheel & Lantern within Lennox’s great department store on Market Street? Fat Sam’s at the Shambles? Hartley’s on Barrack Street? Too, too many to recall or mention.
These were the days when a cup of tea was a cup of tea and a cup of coffee was just that – a cup of coffee – and you didn’t need a degree from Harvard or Yale to read the menu and decipher the humble cuppa’s multiple American-rooted derivations.
How many hours did we spend huddled over a hot or cold drink under the watchful eye of the staff, keen to free up the snug, table or booth for other paying customers? There were often days when they’d have been justified in charging us rent!
Of course there are many, many fine coffee houses and eateries still across our city.
But the years, as they cruelly do, bring changes to days we had hoped would last forever.
There was no better time than those school days with classmates after ‘home time’ – a later bus in order – or weekends with family and friends, the endless social side that a café date could bring.
We are, by nature, social beings. So why race from face-to-face to make it back-to-base to simply communicate by way of likes, loves and other endless, empty emojis.
If we could offer one piece of advice to young people today it is simply this: Live for the moment, enjoy those ‘catch-ups’, those school days from which life-long friendships are built and you’ll have countless memories to look back on and treasure forever.
After all, remember that a smile is a gift best given in person than through electronic means.
