Going Back To My Roots

Todays tour of medical facilities with mother has made me feel like a salmon returning to its spawning grounds. I don’t think I’ve been to Great Sutton in nearly fifty years but, to be fair, the centre of the village hasn’t changed that much in the intervening years.
The shops/cafes on the left of the photo used to be one big Co-op, but those on the right are barely changed, other than in name. There was a newsagents/tobacconists on the corner and there still is. There was a chippy at the other end of the block (not in picture) and it’s a Chinese takeaway now. Biggest surprise was the barbers still being where it was. I had my first cut there as a toddler and remember a) having to sit on a plank placed across the arms of the chair and b) screaming the place down as my beautiful blond locks were cut off. I did eventually get used to it and would give my eye teeth for long blond hair these days - hair of any description in fact.
The other visit was to a clinic just around the corner from my childhood home. The clinic wasn’t there in my day, but the roads, pubs and shops all looked much as they were. I remember the excitement of the new library opening when I was about ten. I was a voracious reader and being allowed to go there on my own meant that school holidays were spent consuming books like there was no tomorrow.
But it’s true what they say about the past - nice to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.