I read this thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29564) with dismay and couldn't help but think about whether the so called "cup of sugar" days are really gone...

In all honesty I actually think people are waking up to the fact that they're missing and in some quarters trying to rekindle them... Certainly there are communities on the net like this one that do actually seem to work a little in that direction (despite some treating it with scorn or as ineffective/not-real)...

So, I dunno... are we really at a point where we can't pop round the neighbours and ask for a cup of sugar or could we, with a little effort, actually get that sort of feeling of community back?..

I suspect it's all down to a little will power and a decision to do something about it...


Thoughts?

The frequently shifting population is the main reason for the end of the cup of sugar days.

With people no longer being born and growing up in the same street, we no longer know each other as well as we did. We now identify more readily with our surrogate neighbours from tv soaps, and the attitude of 'my rights' that's now rife is hardly a recipe for harmony in a neighbourhood.

What happened to consideration? We all expect it, but nobody want's to give it.

I live on a street that's pretty communal I guess, my neighbour's borrow tea and sugar occassionally, we look after each other's door key's if someone's expecting a delivery but has to nip out, we have BBQ's together, sit on each other's garden's of a weekend (when it's warm enough!!).

Another street I used to live on had a small bonfire and firework display in the grassy bit in the middle of the cul-de-sac on Bonfire Night, with pie and peas and drinks laid on. At Christmas one of the neighbour's would dress up as Father Christmas and everyone would fetch their kid's/grandkid's out to get a present from Father Christmas, whilst the adult's ate warm mince pies and sherry.

I live in (what was) an old mining village so I guess that a certain strength of 'community spirit' does still exist in most of it.

i nip round to next door to buy a bag of sugar, but they do run a corner shop.

and we get each others mail occasionally, which we take round later.

i have no interest in sociallising with the people of my street though, i doubt we have much in common and i have little enough time to socialise with my existing friends.

it would be nice if everyone showed enough respect to not block my driveway. We are one of only 2 houses on the road to have a drive or garage and around once or twice a month someone blocks it.
I never block anyones drive no matter where I am, it's just inconsiderate.

Those Cup of Sugar Days (I own the copyright to the poem and the title, by the way) are gone forever, I'm afraid. That's why I wrote the poem around seven years ago - as a testament to the old days.

My neighbours call on me to borrow screwdrivers, but that's about it!

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
Those Cup of Sugar Days (I own the copyright to the poem and the title, by the way) are gone forever, I'm afraid. That's why I wrote the poem around seven years ago - as a testament to the old days.

Are you going to share it with us Sam? I usually like your writings! :thumbsup:

K x

Certainly.....

Those Cup Of Sugar Days

by

Michael Simmonite (Sam)

All for each
one for one
those cup-of-sugar-days are gone.

Locked in boxes
self-inflicted
to soaps and tabloids become addicted.
Be the DJ
the landlord
the microwave chef
pour out another as you scream at the ref.
Electronic wallets
cashless
DD’s
pick up the phone ring shoppers TV.
Conversation gone
no need for chat
cosy
warm
just stay where you’re sat.
We’ve sewn the seeds
that strangle the mind
self centered hunger
ravenous
blind.

One for each
all for one
those-cup-of-sugar-days are gone


__________________________

That's very sad, but nicely penned! :thumbsup: Did you ever get much stuff published Sam?

K x

Quite a bit, I suppose - short stories, articles, spoof news items - in magazines. Never made much dosh, though. Best is 100 quid for a short story in the women's weekly 'The Lady'.

I always thought nipping round for a cup of sugar was a poor excuse for a chat up attempt. :)

Originally posted by Lickszz
I always thought nipping round for a cup of sugar was a poor excuse for a chat up attempt. :)

Wow! :wow: What on earth is my neighbour trying to tell me when he wants to borrow screwdrivers?!? :help: :suspect:

K x

Originally posted by Kristian
Wow! :wow: What on earth is my neighbour trying to tell me when he wants to borrow screwdrivers?!? :help: :suspect:

K x

Yes I'd like to add that my female neighbours have come round twice to borrow screwdrivers

Same as Rubysoho. The people in my part of the street are just so nice and we all get along great - so much so we get invites to each others bbq's and such - and there is a considerable age gap.

When it looked like I was having trouble with paying my rent during a brief period of being out of work - everyone got ready to put together to sort out payments. Luckily they did not have to but the thought was there.

If you respect your neighbours and do not act like total pillocks - they will respect you and you will all get along fine... or maybe I am just lucky?

Dragon

I certainly wouldn't say they are gone.... the couple next door came round to mine a couple of weeks ago because he was doing a fry up and hadnt got any cooking oil so borrowed mine.

I think most people in general a little too "me me me" these days though unfortunately.

I like the community spirit on this forum and I made a lot of friends from the rock bar but in general I suppose it's because our lives seem more geared around the electronic age
Tv, mobile phones, internet etc probably just make us feel we're in enough contact already

Everywhere you go these days you can get in touch with someone but it's just not the same as meeting up for a cosy gossip and a tut tut.

Electronic ice age....brrr!

we have just had some new neighbours move in and the first thing they did was invite us and our other next door neighbours round for a party. It was lovely.

I do think what led the way, however, was my little cat Oscar going and playing with their rabbit. Yes, actually playing. Our neighbours let their rabbit, Mopsy, out of her hutch each evening for an hour to run about the garden. My Oscar goes each evening to sit and play with her in the garden, not a hint of predator and prey, just furry friends. Very funny to watch.

Oh and we ( the neighbours and us) do now share rabbit treats, etc.

That is almost like sugar? ... sugar for bunnies?

Where I live, there has always been a good community spirit. Despite regular comings and goings with some of the houses. I have taken in parcels for neighbours and my neighbours do too, we take each others bins in and out, I borrow tools from neighbours, lent tools to others, fixed things for people, one old lady once bought me a plate of christmas dinner because she had enough left over, and my neighbour pointed my chimney for me, as he was up on the roof next door, how nice is that? And in the past I have helped him with things too.

There is a woman down the road, and no matter how many times I wish her a cheery hello she looks shocked and peed off and grimaces a hello back to me with a glare. I think she'd be better off living in that isolated farmhouse in the middle of the M62 the miserable cow.

It seems to me that now property is so very expensive around me that the area has ceased to be a first time buyer area, and people are staying much longer as they cannot afford to move up, this may be why people have longer to get to know each other. Whereas a decade ago when I first came, my house was worth a third of it's current price and six or seven houses on my road were sold every single year.

We always seem to borrow onions from each other on our street, although last borrow was a toilet plunger, i didn't want it back, told them they could keep it :(