I Hope Service Still Lives On

Somewhere around 1965 I was taken ill in the middle of the night.  I had completely forgotten about the incident until today when I was thinking about the department store John Lewis and the remarkable service I used to get from George Henry Lee which was their Liverpool Branch back then.  I had shopped there independently since I was 16 as had my parents before me.  The doctor was called in the middle of the night and the next morning an ambulance arrived to take me to the nearby hospital (where I had been born and had subsequently worked for a while).  This took me a little by surprise (I didn't even possess a dressing gown).  I rang George Henry Lee and asked if they could send a dressing gown and some pyjamas to the ward.  A couple of hours later one of the young men from the menswear department arrived on the ward with a green paisley dressing gown: the perfect choice.  I have no idea what the pyjamas were like (I have always had a detestation of wearing clothes in bed).   Many years later that young man was still working in the menswear department and I was still buying clothes from him.

When my Uncle who lived on Anglesey was taken in to Bangor Hospital about 9 or 10 years ago he needed extra pyjamas and a dressing gown and, as I was over 500 miles away I wasn't in a position to do anything immediately.  So I rang the M & Co branch in Bangor (in those days it was Mackay's).  I told them what I needed and said that I would try and arrange for a taxi to collect it (how I would manage to get a taxi to do that without cash I wasn't sure).  The assistant asked me to call back in a short while.  I did and she had arranged the whole thing.  One of her colleagues with a car was going home shortly after and she would go to the hospital and take the clothes to the ward for me.  For the record I wrote to the head office and expressed my appreciation.

I have never ceased to be loyal to John Lewis nor to M & Co nor to sing their praises.

I wouldn't mind betting that even with though sales are so the impersonal these days those two companies would still help out in a crisis.  I would like to think that they are not alone.  Just don't try and ask Amazon!

The Bus Service

When I came to Lewis all those years ago I never imagined that I'd be here for more than a couple of years. There are a thousand reasons why I am still here and why I probably always will make this my home when I'm in the UK. To be honest I can think of no place in the UK that I'd rather be. So why have I suddenly embarked upon this rather odd posting? It's all to do with services and, in particular, bus services.

All those years ago Mum remarked that we were very isolated on the Island and, even more so, in Back. She wondered what we would do when we got old. I pointed out that we lived 100 yards from a post office and general shop and, later, a petrol station, garage, hairdresser and chemist. If that was not enough the bus passed our door and the convention was that you stood at the gate and the bus stopped and deposited you back at your house after your travels. The system pertains today except that the bus services are much better.

For the last 15 years I have lived in a village with no shop except for a post office. However the bus comes to my door - well to within 12 yards of my gate - where it turns. I think the service starts at 0700 and carries on until about 2300 from Town. I'm not sure how frequent it is but it's probably hourly - perhaps more in the 'rush hours' when it takes children to school. If I chose to take one of the many services each day I could be deposited in the centre of town or the Co-op (slightly out of the centre if you find walking hard) or the Hospital.

It wouldn't cost me anything either because I'm over 60. Scottish residents over 60 travel free by bus anywhere in Scotland.

The irony of Mum's concern was that long before she left Broad Green there were few shops left nearby and the few that she may have needed were on the other side of the motorway junction and reached by a long and rather unsavoury underpass. It's hard to believe that, when I was a child, what is now a six lane motorway was a road on a single carriageway bridge over a railway. As for taking a bus, many years ago I decided to leave my car at Mum and Dad's and go into the City on one. It was a big mistake: they were scarcer than hen's teeth.