Today, if you come to The High
Street in Hadleigh on Friday or Saturday morning you can buy fresh produce,
eggs, fish, cheese and plants on the sidewalk in front of the bookmakers (it
seems betting on just about anything is legal here) shop.
The five stalls that sell products just pull up with carts, unload and
instantly create a downtown market.
The rest of the week the produce shop on The High Street
opens the door and both windows so that fresh flowers, seasonal fruits and
vegetables and eggs are in full view of the people passing by on the street.
This is a tiny no frills shop run by people who have done this work for
three generations.
My Friday morning ritual was established early.
After walking Cat the seven blocks to school, I say goodbye to Jay so he
can bicycle off to the horse stable for his new volunteer job of cleaning up
after the critters. He thinks he wants a horse when we move back to Ohio and this
is his crash course on stable management.
I walk down the hill past the indoor swimming pool, and
onto the street where East House is located.
East House is a big old brick building where classes are held by Suffolk
College. Across the street is the town’s chocolate shop.
But I walk on about another block past the Baptist Church
and the ancient Tudor cottages. The
windows of these 700-year-old houses still have their original tiny multi-pained
windows. They have names like
“Old House” on little plaques over the entrance to the house.
At the end of this block I take my life into my own hands
to cross George Street. In England,
as in all of the British Empire, past and present, the cars drive on the
opposite side of the road from us. Picture
yourself sitting in the car but with the steering wheel on the right, not the
left-hand side.
Cars come out of nowhere and don’t slow down for
pedestrians unless they are in a special crosswalk.
Then the cars instantly screech to a halt.
At George Street I cross to walk in a sort of pedestrian
walkway past Partridges Hardware Store. This
ancient shop runs from George Street clear through to High Street and is filled
with everything and anything. Every
small town has a “High Street” where the main shopping area is located.
Sometimes I just have to go inside to see what else I
haven’t discovered in the nooks and crannies I overlooked on my last visit.
At High Street I turn right to stop at the newspaper shop
to buy a copy of the East Anglian Press www. …… to find out what is
happening over the weekend. This
local newspaper has a special section telling about events, entertainment and
boot sales (giant yard community sales).
Then I march on to the little street that holds the market.
On my way I pass the bakery, florist shop, Hadleigh Charity Shop, and the
Idler, a place to buy used books. All
of these places are housed in ancient medieval buildings.
Sometimes I buy paw paws (papaya) or apples, fresh herbs
and English sprouts (Brussels sprouts). Sometimes
I just look at the plants. The
whole thing takes about five minutes.
I hope I
won’t repeat this too often, but I just have to say, “I sure do miss
France”. The French market twice
was a shopping event where I could stay for hours.
Everything was beautifully displayed and fresh.
My goal is to stop telling myself that I miss France.
I am going to have to work hard to reach my goal.