Rural depopulation

Grandad May 3rd, 2008

I went down to the village yesterday.

It was a nice sunny day, though there was a bit of a nip in the air.  It was ideal weather for a coffee and a smoke of the pipe.

The terrace in front of the coffee shop was packed, which surprised me as it was Friday.  Then I discovered they were all Dutch.  They weren’t wearing clogs or anything like that, but I recognised the language.  I was a bit annoyed that they had taken my usual table but there is always a place kept for me, so Sandy and I settled down.

I had a bit of a problem with all these Dutch.  There were a lot of them and I only had the car with me, so logistics decided their fate.  I just wasn’t in the mood for multiple trips to the land fill.

Later, I was wandering down to buy some tobacco and I heard the unmistakable screech of an American accent.  There were three of them and they were chatting to a local.  Sandy and I implemented our usual plan.  Sandy pretended to have a dump [I knew she was only pretending, because she is incredibly discreet about her toiletries], and I lit my pipe.

I was disgusted.  The Americans were looking for directions, and he was actually telling them the right way.

They thanked him [I found it hard not to throw up], and told them that he seemed to know the area very well.  He replied in an awful Stage Oirish manner “yarra, sure I have lived here for sixty years, man and boy”.  At that stage I did throw up, and Sandy did do a dump.

I let the Americans go.

But I did have my trip to the land fill.

We have standards to maintain in the village, after all.

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7 Responses to “Rural depopulation”

  1. popeyemoon UNITED STATESon 03 May 2008 at 3:09 pm

    Do you keep a tally of your hunts.and do you keep souvenirs,like some of our serial killers.; )

  2. Longman Oz IRELANDon 03 May 2008 at 4:25 pm

    Heh. Nicely done. I tip my hat to you sir. Begobs and begorrah, I do surely.

  3. Grandad IRELANDon 03 May 2008 at 7:36 pm

    Popeye - I keep records, but they are confidential. I don’t want the competition to know what they are up against! I do keep the odd souvenir, [like credit cards] but generally no. I’m not a serial killer.

    Longman Oz - Thank you kindly, Sir.

  4. popeyemoon UNITED STATESon 03 May 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Hell,I thought i met a friend.:)

  5. Paddy Bloggit IRELANDon 03 May 2008 at 11:23 pm

    Wonder if they can be recycled?

  6. june in florida UNITED STATESon 04 May 2008 at 12:49 am

    I totally agree with Paddy, this is something you need to think about.

  7. Grandad IRELANDon 04 May 2008 at 12:57 am

    Popeye - Even Herself doesn’t know my score. But then, she’s not a friend - she’s my wife.

    Paddy - I’m not sure how one would recycle an ex-tourist, or even an ex-local. I once toyed with the idea of melting down Mary Harney for bio-diesel, but I decided that it would do more damage to the environment than ordinary diesel.

    June - All suggestions are welcome. Landfill is quite costly these days.

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