Wordsley, Stourbridge, England: 7 degrees, cold, but a beautiful day.
Today turned out to be a challenging walk. I left home not knowing where I would go and not interested in walking far, which is the opposite of what finally happened.
I found myself going back to York Crescent, where I spent most of my childhood. There was a route along the canal that I would take to visit my grandmother when I was a child, which I had tried to walk along at the beginning of the month, but it was blocked, impassable.
I was curious because when I was walking along the canal today, I saw people on the other side coming from that path. I shouted over to the other side of the canal, asking them, and they told me that it had been cleared in the last couple of days, allowing me to access the street that led to my old home.
I thanked the people and continued along the path, finally arriving out of the canal and into the street that led to York Crescent, where my family and I had lived for so long in the past. When I arrived, I didn’t stay long reminiscing. Instead, I walked up and into the streets that I would go along for school.
The day is beautiful, with few clouds in the sky, no rain, and everything seems to be blooming, especially in the sun.
I walked down into Wollaston village, where I once worked at a bakery on the main High Street, which has probably been closed for a long time now. There is also the newsagent’s that is still there, but with different owners, and next to it, there used to be a toy shop that is no longer there.
The village centre, the heart of this quaint little village, remains the same, but most of the businesses have either closed or changed hands, and only the pubs have survived the test of time.
It’s my naivety that leads me to expect small shops and businesses from the past to be here still and survive the test of time. Indeed, nothing is forever; everything is constantly changing, and nothing escapes this universal truth.
Ultimately, death is an inevitable part of reality.
Deciding to walk to Stourbridge, I took Enville Street, the Main Street that connects Wollaston with Stourbridge. My primary school, where I spent five years until I was 11, is located on the Wollaston side, adjacent to the local church, with its grounds surrounding it, which are still quite beautiful.
This street, which stretches about a mile and a half and leads into Stourbridge, used to have eight or nine pubs along it. On Friday or Saturday evenings, people would sometimes go on a pub crawl, starting at one end of the street. They would have one pint or drink in each pub while moving on to the next, trying to visit all the pubs before they closed.
It’s a challenge in terms of time because the closing time for licensing is midnight. When you’re with friends and having a good time, it’s more common to want to stay in one place rather than move on. Additionally, the whole street is quite long.
When you enjoy a pint or a drink in each pub during a pub crawl, leaving the warmth of the bar for the cold English weather, which usually has more fresh air, can make you feel drunker more quickly. If you’re not extremely disciplined and focused, you might likely give up before reaching the last pub on the crawl.
One notable characteristic of this street in the past that is no longer present is ‘Langer’s’, the Army and Navy store, which was once well-known in the region. Located on the right-hand side of Enville Street, just before reaching Stourbridge, it was a large, long white building that featured a variety of army and navy artefacts, clothing, hardware, and more. Many items were displayed on or in front of the pavement in front of the shop, as well as on the walls and in the windows to showcase what was inside.
From the time I was around 12 or 13 years old, I would often visit this shop. Once, I bought an original Italian army jacket from there, which was a popular trend at the time. The shop felt like a treasure chest, an Aladdin’s cave filled with a variety of items, both new and second-hand. You could find things for the home, garden, camping, or simply as decorative pieces. It was easy to lose track of time while searching for unique military items amidst the clutter and collectables.
Once again, it’s gone, just like so many other things—places, institutions, and businesses. Now, it’s merely a distant memory. I wonder if it’s because we’re young, impulsive, or feel inconsequential that we fail to recognise how special those moments truly are while we’re experiencing them. We can learn from our past and appreciate the moments we are living today, as they too may eventually pass and change in the future.
I walked into Stourbridge town, which for me nowadays is a mixture of old and new, and good and bad. What disappoints me is that many of the old traditional businesses have gone, but they have been replaced with numerous charity shops, unappealing vape shops, and coffee shops.
I get the impression that English people, with their sustained economic buoyancy over the last 30 or 40 years, are now soft. The new generations, or the younger ones, don’t have the same hardness as our forefathers, who were made of sterner stuff – people who were moulded into the iron cast of a person, with strong principles, discipline, and hard rules, but always kind and considerate.
I think the new generation is accustomed to being pampered and spoiled, which leads to easy and immediate pleasures, such as gaming and vaping, and having what they want easily, and without any waiting, but not necessarily what they need.
In England today, everyone has a decent car, central heating, and double glazing in their homes, along with numerous distractions that exploit their weaknesses and lead to a lack of direction in their lives.
Whilst walking around in the High Street, I stopped at a quaint coffee shop for a coffee and to write. There was a couple who sat near me who had a beautiful and impressive traditional lurcher hunting dog, which I complimented.
I thought about taking the bus home, but I finally decided to walk home along the canal. Walking along the canal is a shortcut; I think it’s shorter, faster, and much more pleasant than walking along the street with the traffic. The total distance that I had walked was about 16 kilometres, which was a good and long round trip for the morning. I had lunch with my mother and later rested.
In the evening, I began separating some clothes to pack in my small suitcase for the trip to Sheffield to see my brother and his family the next day.
A pleasant and straightforward Boxing Day in England.
In bed by 11:00 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
