Lorries in a Provincial City
Page 25
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IN THESE days, when the village butcher and grocer have their motor delivery vans, the idea of delivery by this means has ceased to be a novelty. Familiarity, although it has not bred contempt, has certainly banished the element of 'surprise. The transport -services operating in a provincial district soon become an accepted feature. Even The bus service's, which a year or two ago were attracting attention in most provincial centres, have now been admitted as part of the life of a place. -People use them to get to their places of business ; women travel to 1-own in them for shopping, and; although their advantages are discussed_ and commented on, a slight irregularity is soon noticed. So soon, having made new friends, do we sit in judgment upon thetnI
Now, although all this may be perfectly true in regard to motor vehicles belonging to our own particular locality, it Certainly does not apply to longdistance lorry service. That has never lost. its power to thrill, as well as to interest, the most casual observer.
When a youth goes to his work in, say, Chesterfield, starts up, and.pilots his lorry through Sheffield and Barnsley to Wakefield, and is well on his way back before dinner, one would have to be phlegmatic indeed not to experience a feeling of surprised interest at the ease with which the whole task is
accomplished. Tothis boy, who talked of distaril cities with easy confidence, the thing was a commonplace, 6veryday job. The Londoner, staying in a northern town, will often be confronted with a familiar name on a passing lorry; back home again, he will see .many a visitor join the thiobbing stream which flows along Oxford Street. The frequency with which One may. see London lorries some two hundred miles from home is -surprising. With few opportunities for observation, one might see, in the capital of the West Riding, a smartly turned-out vehicle, with trailer, bearing the name of a well-known London stores. The addition of one or two well-seleeted posters makes this a publicity scheme in itself. Among others, one notices heavies from Merton and Fulham, Luton and Derby. Crosscountry traffic is represented by Morecambe and Hull. One might also see a new char-à-bancs bearing a Sunderland address, or a platform wagon going home to Accrington, across the Lancashire lolarder. Then there are the mere locals from the 25-30 miles_ring, such as 'York and Sheffield,
Thus are dwellers in a country town reminded of places known to them only by name ; thus does the long arm of mechanical transport bring to man the things by which he lives.