by
Frank Hatton

With the demise of my old computer, and the purchase of a new one, I am now able to access the web page of Scottish Radiance, and among the many things available for reading, it also gives the reason for this monthly article you are now reading, which is to tell you good folk a little about the life we lead in this little country of ours. Now we come to the difficult bit, in that I rely a great deal on my daily newspaper to find items of news which could be of interest to you. Under normal circumstances, there are quite a number of strange goings on, some funny, and others not so funny with which to titillate your fancy. However, over this last week or so, we seem to be stumbling from one disaster to another, and the papers are full of stories about houses being burnt down by arson, often with small children dead. Others tell of hospital staff being assaulted by drunken patients in the casualty department, and in one case, a doctor was held hostage by a person wielding a can of gasoline. Then came the worst one of all, when one of our high speed passenger trains crashed head on into another slower passenger train resulting in 170 people dead and many others badly injured. Now, without wanting to ignore the fact that all of this tragedy and trouble is going on, I feel sure that you could match me story for story on your own problems and disasters in your part of the world. Soooo, what I propose we do this month, is to examine the cultures of the US and the UK, and hope that we may learn a little more about each other.

Firstly, I am of the opinion that in this modern day and age, most cultures follow a very similar pattern of behaviour, in that we each get up in the morning and follow a like routine. We shower or bath, dress and have breakfast, then, dependent on our role in life, we either go to work somewhere, or we do our work from home. Whether we are office workers, police officers, fire-fighters, medical workers, truck drivers, managerial, or a host of other like occupations, we differ very little in our daily duties. Shopping in our supermarkets is pretty much alike, the clothes we wear are of a similar design, , we socialise with friends, we drive, we entertain, and in fact, most of the so called modern civilised nations have a very similar lifestyle. However, having said all that, and accepted that our streets and stores are much the same, my thought is that we part company on our outlook on things of historical nature.

Most of the cities over here have churches, and lots of other buildings which date back for several hundred years. The town in which I live for instance has a Priory which is over 900 years old. We have old pubs in the High Street which date back between two and six hundred years, and I recall having mentioned both the Priory and the oldest pub in one of the earlier ‘From Over the Pond’ articles, and a guy wrote to me from New York, to say that this was probably one of the major differences in our respective outlooks on life, in that the British think that driving 200 miles is a long way, and the Americans think that 200 years is a long time.

I recall reading an article by one of my favourite American writers, a bloke by the name of Bill Bryson, and he was writing about how at the turn of the last century, Stanford White, one of the greatest American architects of his day, built the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York City. Designed on a grand scale, and using only the finest materials, it was built to last 1000 years. In the event, less than 10 years later it was torn down to make way for a skyscraper. On another tack,...... and I’m going back some forty years or so,..... I recall watching a TV programme which was titled ‘The American Throw Away Society’. It dealt with the tendency of manufacturers in America to build items like automobiles, washing machines, and lots of similar items, with a limited lifespan, and it was expected that they would be replaced every four or five years. This idea was completely alien to the British way of life, as at that time, our own cars were made of much thicker gauge steel, and it was quite normal for a vehicle to last for at least ten years, and more likely 15 or 20 years with a bit of care and attention. Likewise, many other mechanical devices were expected to last for many years. However, I suppose that the concept of updating design and performance, coupled with the prospect of greater profits, has made this country follow the pattern, and our cars and other items now have a built in lifespan much the same as the US.

Hence, it would seem that our major remaining cultural difference are our views on historical buildings, but, even on that score I have seen things changing over here. We have had a steady encroachment of land redevelopment schemes, where old buildings are bought at very high and attractive prices, and the site is then redeveloped into expensive modern housing, or other types of structure which will make a good profit for the developers. Fortunately, our local planning departments, ( I think you call them Zoning) are resisting any major historical changes, but, I fear that ultimately, the lure of high profits will overcome the resistance. One good example of this is in our nearby seaside resort of Bournemouth, where we had a good sized car park right beside the beach. It was always a popular place to park the car, with many amenities close by. Last year, our local authority sold off half of this car park to some developers, who have now built an enormous cinema on the site. Not only have we lost a major parking facility, but, in addition, the beautiful view of the beach area has been blocked out by this ugly building......

Another illustration of greed and profit overcoming beauty. It causes me to wonder just how far things will be allowed to go, and maybe, just maybe, way, way off in the future, we could even see places like the Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus, The British Museum, and even Stonehenge being torn down to make way for a Supermarket or a Multi-story car park...... I’m only joking folks,... I hope!!!! As is my normal custom, I like to leave you with a smile on your face, so, let me relate some correspondence I saw recently on the problems of the comma being put in the wrong place. And an example was given of the soldier who received a telegram from his wife which read, ‘Not getting any better, come home at once’, and the guy was duly given compassionate leave for 48 hours, but, arrived home to find his wife fit and well. She explained that the original telegram read, ‘Not getting any, better come home at once’.

'til next time,
Frank Hatton

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You can find more articles in the archive under From Over the Pond