Wandering through Hawes recently I spotted the sign in the window of a closed shop door – ‘Dog walking’ – Back soon’ – and it gave me pause for thought.
Hawes is a beautiful small town, nestled in the north Yorkshire Dales, the home of Wensleydale Cheese and a centre for the local farming community, fell walkers, cyclists, and admirers of the countryside. As with many similar places, dogs are there in numbers. Walkers’ dogs, working dogs, dogs in shops, dogs riding proud on tractors and utility vehicles, dogs everywhere. In this context it is hardly surprising to find a shopkeeper needing to walk a dog but it does underline a key cultural difference from more urban areas.
Elsewhere a shop might be closed for lunch- something which went out of fashion but seems to be making a comeback – but not for other reasons. Here the dog is the priority, not lunch. I imagine the shopkeeper munching on an apple, or maybe a good Yorkshire pork pie, as he or she strides out with the dog, praying that the dog will not feel the need to open its bowels before the snack has been consumed.
‘Dog walking. Back soon’ going to the bank cheque book in hand down the vilage street disappointed to find stuck to the door ‘Dog walking. Back soon’ popping to the tea room to relax over a pot only to find a familiar sign ‘Dog walking. Back soon’ next stop the post office for some stamps and a chat should be safe there - old Ben has a cat but no, it’s all shut he’s frustrated again the note says ‘had to pop out Back in ten’ So he sits on a bench watches the world go by shop keeper and waiter both with their dogs chatting away non stop talking enjoying the fresh air the joy of dog walking
This seems a healthy attitude – commerce can wait while I walk my dog. Some custom might be lost but other customers wil be along later. It’s somehow less driven, more mindful, more balanced than the pressure to be always available, open all hours, 7 days a week.
The rot seems to have set in with Sunday opening. Before that, there was a recognised day off, a space to unwind. When I was growing up, most shops outside the larger centres were closed on a Saturday afternoon as well, not to mention half day closing on a Wednesday. Emergency purchases on those days could be made at the then ubiquitous corner shop, reducing the inconvenience and letting most people have a day off. The concern here is the reliance we seem to have created on everything being available everywhere and all the time, a reliance only challenged in smaller places , less accessible for the concentrations of people in the larger towns and urban centres.
We really do not need everything immediately to hand, we just act as if we do. Healthier to adjust to a way of life which has more space, more room to breathe. Healthier to lve simply, take time out, give priority to walking the dog.
market town bustle in the air the cry of the peewit
Wednesday half closing. GPs all playing golf. Passing two bakers on the way to the high street, three grocers, two butchers and an iron mongers with that peppery metallic smell of oil. One day they all turned into estate agents, overnight it seems! I always wondered if the grocers daughter from Grantham had anything to do with it.