The star…

A day or two back I posted a film of a coat-hanger person in the street moving an egg timer.  It was never planned to be significant; as I said on the day the weather wasn’t promising any prolonged clemency.  I grabbed the nearest and only thing my fingerless person could hope to carry anymore than a few steps. It worked, with of course much room for improvement.

However, looking back at the film and story board for all its few seconds is revealing.  Although the backdrop is a street scene it bears no resemblance to mine. This tiny terraced house is one of many thousands built in the mid to late 19^th century, for the workers in Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory, Courage’s Brewery and Sutton Seeds, have no front gardens and there are no trees. Very few have more than a tired Christmas Cacti on its windowsill. We have no space for the mandatory two wheelie bins, so they line the street two by two in military splendour until the bin men on collection day place them hither and thither. 

During the recent austerity and more in lockdown, neighbours have been placing unwanted clutter on their steps for others to take if required. A strange array of stuff hangs around for a day or two until removed, replaced or not. I too have enjoyed and benefited from this practice, whether it is cooking apples from a laden tree in the back yard, a sideboard and of late, props for my filmmaking purposes.

It would seem we are all seen carrying something. I have lived here for over 30 years and lost count of the times one or other of houses have been renovated almost beyond recognition.  Therefore, frequently there is a skip by the kerbside being filled with stuff ripped out with careless abandon that was ceremoniously built in some years before. Then men in battered white van bring more delights to replace it.

So my coat-hanger person is a star of the Clarendon Road Show representing time and things that pass usually unnoticed.