Do You Agree?

Les talks the language of money

I wonder if there are other people like me who never did enjoy driving a car and as I get older I enjoy it even less. If only I could go from A to B by Bus what a pleasure it would be for me to sell my car and see the back of it. I have just paid my car insurance, some £300 or so and how I hated paying that! And then what about car depreciation? Owning a car has cost me a fortune and I regard every penny I have spent on cars as a complete waste of money.

Yet the remarkable thing is the money I have spent on cigarettes and I smoked for some 50 years, it's now some eight years since I packed up, now that wasn't wasted money say I. Well you can't get more crazy than that. Then there's the money I have spent on alcohol and still do. Well that's supposed to be OK by me but spend a penny on cars and what do I say, 'What a waste of money'. It doesn't make sense and you know what they say, 'There is nowt as queer as folk themselves'.

We are talking here about money and this raises the question just how important is it? Well, I remember when I got married and hadn't got two pennies to rub together; then money meant everything. But today, when I put my hand in my pocket, I've still got some left over, not a lot, but some, and that's how it should be. It depends I think on your attitude to life. I have never been one for being jealous of what other people have. If someone has a newer car, a bigger house than I have, well so what? Because while I still have relatively good health, my God what a rich person I am.

If we take writing for example and I am not just thinking of myself but other Contributors to our Village Pump as well, we don't get paid and don't wish to and yet we get great pleasure from writing and it doesn't cost us a penny. Do things which are free and it's remarkable the satisfaction you get. Little wonder the song goes, 'The best things in life are free'. Well to be honest this isn't quite true. If it was you wouldn't spend a penny, well at least not on pleasures. I have no problem with people who go to, say Bingo's. I think that's value for money. It's not my scene but so what? It brings people together which is a good thing and if the money you spend at, say a Bingo, is in moderation and that's my point, whatever you do, Bingo, Drinking, Smoking, you name it, do it in moderation and to me there's no problem.

If I had any authority in this world today I wouldn't ban these sorts of things. It is when you get back to the subject I started with Cars then that's something I would ban. Because we are no longer talking moderation we are talking Excess. Think of the money you have lost the minute you purchase your car. Don't tell me its value for money! Unfortunately at the present it's a necessary. I look forward to the day when it isn't and when that day comes it will bring all of us closer together, which is really what I'm on about.

Les Lawrence