2030 The Story of Community
We are a happy people. We go about these days with a good feeling, a sense that the difficult times are behind us. There was a very worrying time back in the early 20s when there was quite a real sense of anxiety with the threat of war over water. Water of all things, but we did start to value it a lot more when we thought we might have to fight for it. We have faced a lot of challenges in the last 20 odd years. That old life seems a long way off and I must say I don’t miss the rush and stress we all lived with back then. It was all such a waste of our time, spending hours in traffic queues, supermarket queues, even queues for the recycling centre.
We enjoy such a wonderful quality of life these days. We really do have so much more time to enjoy life and find time to do all those things we once meant to do but never got around to, like making jam and checking on neighbours. The biggest change is the way we all love growing our veg. My Jonny says he’s expecting his biggest crop of onions ever this year and while he won’t admit it, I’m pretty sure the manure from the new chickens is contributing.
I spend far more time than I ever expected at the new Civic Hall. It is such a lovely building to have in the middle of Totnes. They finally finished the building 8 years ago and the Town Council really pulled out all the stops to get it done in time for the King’s Coronation. We managed to squeeze 500 of us in there and there must have been twice as many outside under the lovely glass roof they built for the market. We all watched the ceremony on the wall screen and drank to his royal health with Sharpham’s pink champagne. The extra meeting rooms they fitted in are always busy and I don’t mind giving my 3 hours a week to help out at the reception, in fact it’s a treat as I see all my friends coming and going. The glass roof café is a wonderful asset, I can sit up there and spot my friends coming into the market underneath, we meet up there most Friday’s for a coffee and to catch up.
The new leisure centre has been a real bonus especially for the young people. They have their new club room at the back and no one complains about the noise as it is so well insulated. They really needed a new building as there are so many of them taking apprenticeships in town and since the youth co-op was formed. The work those young people now do house painting for the elderly and the gardening gap year in the allotments has woken up a lot of people.
Jemima Goodstone, Totnes
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