As Time Goes By

In our town there were many small shops, one selling buttons the other socks; and a hardware store should you need a hammer and nails to hang up a picture of your mother -in- law, in the living room. There was also a shop selling scarves, another selling ladies hats, and a third one, quite posh, selling suits and ties. I mustn’t forget the shoe shop, leather footwear black or brown and white tennis shoes. In our street of trade most shops have shut, those still open are run by the Orientals where you can buy all you need for a very small price. If your shoes wear out, no point going to the old cobbler, buy Chinese instead. Red lanterns sway in the fiscal breeze of decline where wistfulness has no price tag. But you must remember this, a shop is just a shop, yet, for us sentimental fools, are remembered as a sweet memory of times gone by,