Last night outside my local, the Guest House, an old man who was well into his 80s fell and gashed his head. Both the licensee, Gail, and a barmaid, Marilyn, went out to help, taking out towels and sitting with him. After a while when the ambulance still hadn't turned up, a couple of pub regulars helped him inside to sit in the warm to wait. They checked he was okay before leaving themselves.When the ambulance did arrive, the two female paramedics were very cheerful and helpful, and he confirmed that he had simply fallen, and not been mugged, before they took him away. In the meantime, the pub staff were trying to track down his daughter on a smart phone, as the info he gave them about her whereabouts was out of date, probably a result of confusion brought on by his fall.
I just saw a lot of concern. Where, I wondered, was the violent, selfish, drunken mayhem that the anti-alcohol brigade constantly claims fills the pubs and streets of our town and city centres at weekends? After all, they wouldn't lie just to try to scare people into staying at home at weekends, would they?
The trouble is Nev, that good heart-warming stories like this, which show the best of human nature, don’t sell newspapers. Far better to splash embellished stories about no-go areas in city centres and drunken mayhem on our streets, right across the front page, irrespective of the truth.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is this constant drip-drip of grossly exaggerated reports about our town centres resembling war-zones on Friday and Saturday evenings, does start to feed its way through into peoples’ perceptions. I have a friend, admittedly a few years older than me, but considerably fitter and leaner, who openly admits he won’t venture down our local High Street of an evening. This is despite evidence to the contrary that it is perfectly safe; evidence which I have much personal experience of. Mind you he is foolish enough to read the Daily Mail!
Enough said!
DeleteActually, I had the same experience in my last job when some colleagues were permanently amazed I went into Southport town centre at weekends. The fact that I was alive to tell the tale and apparently undamaged never caused them to question their preconceptions.
ReplyDeleteThis is really a wonderful post.