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| The old tobacco shop behind Bath Abbey |
It is Sunday what strays through my mind today. Two things, poverty and pipes. After remembering that my grandfather smoked cigars and a pipe yesterday. My mind suddenly thought but so did my ex-husband. He smoked a pipe and we would go down town to the tobacconist shop in Bath called Frederick Tranter to buy tobacco, it now goes under a different name but still sells cigars. Matilda still has one of the old wooden boxes of my grandfathers that housed the cigars. Tobacco smoking in any form is now looked upon with severity, and now there are shops for vaping something I know little about. But I must have been an expert (for a short time) on Bristol clay pipes because I wrote a paper on it.
Clay pipes are something that appears in any excavation, especially near the top surface. Normally you would find more stems than bowls. Some would be patterned and their maker could be named easily, others not so. Their distribution would give clues of course, many not travelling far.
People don't smoke so much nowadays, obviously for health reasons and it has become expensive. Food has suddenly become a talking point as we enter austerity, and people start to feel the pinch of less of everything.
where did it all go wrong? an empty question, we can point the finger at the triggers, Ukraine, Brexit, energy shortages and stupid decisions made by government.
But poverty is beginning too deepen, food banks spring up, though they are also feeling the pinch, less food donated for a number of reasons and more applicants. Someone mentioned using the unused money out of the various charities that have now closed. Most of us buy extra food to put in the donation boxes at supermarkets. It is all a bit hit and miss, why for instance can we not when we are paying for our goods ask the supermarket to put an extra £5 donation on our bill?
One of the problems it has always seemed to me is that there is too much 'junk' food around, it may fulfil the fat/sugar side but leaves you empty and nutrition poor a couple of hours later.
We who were born after the last world war, know something about rationing, but we were fed and the necessary vitamins handed out, yet today we cannot even feed our children in schools. Charity breakfasts for goodness sake! Something is wrong in the state of Denmark, is my reaction.
So a free-ranging economy has created a situation that needs putting right. We can feed children it is in our capabilities, instead of talking it down we should be out demanding that proper kitchens are introduced into schools with good chefs and making meals free for everyone.
Pipes are a common denomonater across many archaeological sites. Well done on writing a paper about the Bath ones. My father only ever smoked at Christmas, cigarettes. A special treat. On the topic of pipes, I once found one at a car boot sale, probably Victorian, made from a suitably shaped piece of hedgerow, and carefully carved and worn with years of handling. Needs must in those days.
ReplyDeleteI despise Junk Food and wish that people didn't think it was a cheap way to eat. In the middle of the night sometimes I watch My 600 pound Life, which is enough to put you off that chocolate bar or extra piece of cake for life. They all seem to live on gigantic pizzas, several at a time, and eat an entire gooey chocolate cake where we might have a slim slice. Fruit and vegetables are unheard of in their diet. About 5 minutes after being shoehorned into a car which can barely contain them, they are heckling the driver to stop for food because the journey to the Hospital is too stressful and food is their only consolation. Yeesh.
Morning Jennie, how early we all are. Already I have had two visitors to my bedroom, Lillie who is doing a scout's march for Remembrance Sunday and my daughter who went to see a play in Manchester last night and mentions the fact that they are doing up Elizabeth Gaskell's house in Manchester to its original state. Must look that up.
DeleteYes pipes are always found, the bowls are rare though, they seem very breakable especially the long stemmed one.
I remember when doctors said that they would not treat obese people but of course that was an empty threat but it is the food produced that makes a lot of people over eat.
On our way home from Italy we stopped at a UK service area, it was lunch time. After 7 months away it was shocking to see the amount of fast food being consumed by people of all ages, many of the younger ones were obese. Of course this rubbish food is simply produced for profit, the queues at McDonalds confirmed that is happening. I don't know if its lack of nutritional education, laziness, whatever, there were plenty of people with enough money to waste on empty and damaging calories.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure whose fault it is. Fat/sugar is something the body craves for, the manufacturers have gone with the notion that this makes money. The generational problem is difficult to overcome. Yet of course many children eat properly it is not all doom and gloom Jenny. McDonalds is yuck can't understand why people think it is good.
DeleteOh, you have struck a nerve with me. Our schools spent a great deal of money feeding children breakfasts and lunch. Back pack meals for the at risk children. But what are these meals? Breakfast is a wrapped pastry. Lunch is chicken nuggets, or pizza, or something else that is pretty much a package opened and heated. These weekend meals are all microwaveable things and fruit cups and dessert pastries. Nothing healthy. Nothing that is going to demonstrate another way to kids. We have something called WIC. (Women, Infants, Children). It offers cereal, milk, and juice vouchers, a good supplemental thing. You cannot go wrong with milk. But the thing is, you are limited to certain brands of cereal and juice. Brand name stuff. We always bought off brands, because they were cheaper, but people receiving the WIC do not learn to be thrifty or to check prices. They can only get what they can get. (An aside: The juice brands are not the 'healthy' choices). WIC is a government program. Taxpayers get less 'bang' for their buck. People in the program get their free stuff, but their overall situation is not improved, in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThe poorest people, the most at risk people, are those without the life skills necessary to get through hard times. We are raising a generation with even less life skills.
I suppose it is no different in America Debby. The easy way is taken out, the food manufacturers are protected because they bring in the money and the grass root people do not have access to decent cooking. From what I have seen of American bloggers many still harvest and preserve their food. But again it is down to education. Think the French serve up better meals for their children.
ReplyDeleteI still like Tranters. In two weeks, Liz Truss caused £35 billion worth of damage. All that clap-trap about being the only party which can be trusted with the economy.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, they going to tax everyone to pay for their mistakes. It's lovely to think that Tranters still goes on in the same old way with some slight change. Something cigarette smokers never get is the rich smell of tobacco as it is crushed into a pipe.
DeleteDebbie covered the situation in America. I believe it's ubiquitous to meal programs. I understand children in refugee camps are becoming obese because of the processed foods they are given.
ReplyDeleteThere is really no answer Joanne, except by actually banning the food and that will never happen.
DeleteMy dad smoked a pipe and on "special occasions" he enjoyed a cigar. When I was a child my present to him at Christmas was always a tin of his favourite pipe tobacco and a packet of cigars. There used to be a few tobacconist shops around in those days, it's rare to see one now. I love the smell of a pipe - it reminds me of dad sitting watching cricket on tv on a Saturday afternoon. I think he spent more time cleaning his pipe out, and trying to light it, than he did actually smoking it.
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