Just recently our local authority has decided to switch off street lighting between about midnight and six in the morning. It's just like it was when I was a girl! Many men worked shifts in my home town as steel making can't be turned off at night so lighting was on until about 11.30 at night to give men coming off the 2-10pm shift time to get home. It came on at about 5am for people cycling to work to start the 6am-2pm shift.
It also meant that milk deliveries could start soon after 5am. A stream of milk girls would walk along the main arterial road in our town, each pulling a milk float which was battery powered but it still had to be operated by a girl on foot. Gradually the stream would diminish as first one girl then another would peel off to do her round. My mother used to buy a supply of "milk checks" from the Co-op. These were little plastic discs which could be left out for the milkgirl to pick up when she delivered a pint. Daily deliveries were vital when few households had a fridge. Those days are long gone and these days I buy my one pint a week from the supermarket.
These days even if I wanted a doorstep delivery I couldn't have one. I'm not the only one to have voted with my feet. Doorstep deliveries are no longer viable.
The one sure doorstep delivery now is post. I've lived in a country where one had to go to the post office to collect letters etc and I much prefer hearing letters rattle though the letterbox. I don't want voting with my feet to endanger that service. I've opted out of junk mail, I get most regular bills as e mails, and I get very sniffy about the unaddressed junk mail makes the hallway so untidy. However, I am beginning to feel that if we opt out of too much the Royal Mail may say that doorstep deliveries will become a thing of the past. I know e mail is cheap and convenient but I am still happy to send letters as I feel they are excellent value for money. The multitude of Amazon deliveries do their bit to ensure that the postie will keep his job a little bit longer. Yes sending e mails is frugal but I really don't want the postie to go the way of the milk girl.
The one sure doorstep delivery now is post. I've lived in a country where one had to go to the post office to collect letters etc and I much prefer hearing letters rattle though the letterbox. I don't want voting with my feet to endanger that service. I've opted out of junk mail, I get most regular bills as e mails, and I get very sniffy about the unaddressed junk mail makes the hallway so untidy. However, I am beginning to feel that if we opt out of too much the Royal Mail may say that doorstep deliveries will become a thing of the past. I know e mail is cheap and convenient but I am still happy to send letters as I feel they are excellent value for money. The multitude of Amazon deliveries do their bit to ensure that the postie will keep his job a little bit longer. Yes sending e mails is frugal but I really don't want the postie to go the way of the milk girl.
