On Sunday we decided to walk down to the ponds at Carshalton to attend the Remembrance Day service.
Noting on the way the verges strewn with beer cans and burger boxes, the graffiti covered walls of the bakery at the Beeches, and the newly smashed telephone kiosk opposite the station, we looked forward to something uplifting at the service.
A vain hope. With responsibility for traffic management at the ponds transferred from the police to the traffic warden service, the two minutes silence was accompanied by the roar of traffic, as those on duty did not apparently know that it is customary to stop it, and the drivers were clearly unable to spare two minutes on their journey to IKEA and other temples of worship.
One wonders what those we were gathered to remember would make of Carshalton in 2001, particularly the very feeble rendering of the National Anthem.
I think they would find it a rather depressing place.
ROBERT BULLING
Beeches Walk
Carshalton
November 23, 2001 10:30
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