They were not the “good old days” to pine for. Change and development have done more good for more people than I would have thought possible. But there are still some things which have been lost and which I miss. Collateral damage.
My top twenty (but not in any particular order):
- The all-purpose milk-man at the door (cheese, bread, onions, potatoes…), every day of the year except one
- “My” shoemaker in Chinatown who could cope with my left foot being slightly longer than my right
- The policeman on our beat who knew our names (and we knew his)
- Dingy, dark, smoke-filled, hole-in-the wall bars
- Taxi drivers who knew the way (without a map or a GPS)
- Teachers whose job satisfaction lay in that students had learnt
- Professors who preferred the elegant solution
- Hospitals run by doctors
- Heroes who were neither sexual predators nor paedophiles
- Banks with real tellers
- Banks with money
- Shops which provided bags to carry away their merchandise
- Airports without security checks
- Airlines where service was part of the service
- Aircraft where passenger comfort was a fundamental human right
- Science where theory was subordinate to data
- Scientists who questioned
- The environment which included humans
- Roads which were not parking lots
- Managers who managed
Tags: service society
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