From my little house you cannot see the whole street, but you can see quite a bit. It is certainly enough to notice what is going on in people’s lives.
It is enough to see the milk float going in and out, and to see some of the stops. You do not have to be able to see it stopping at every house.
The same with the postman, and all the delivery men that are coming these days. I do not have internet. I would not know how to use a computer, but I saw them install those extra wires. I have a good feeling that I know where all those young people are spending their time: it is not cleaning the gutters, weeding the garden nor in the couples bed. No! They are “surfing” on the internet. There on the internet, they can find that little delightful thing that just the day before they did not know they needed, but today they find, and with mouths open wide in amazement, and they cannot live without it. That is the reason why all those delivery men are coming.
When they have unwrapped that thing, drunk the milk, and all the other substances that they drink, then all the wrappers and bottles and other containers end up on the sidewalk for collection. I am old enough (not that you need to be that old) to remember a time when normal family could easily fit a week's worth of rubbish in a regular small bin. Now, it spills all over in plain view of everyone. No, you do not need to look around much to notice what is going on.
If life is a dreadful drag, then at least it makes the day go by faster to notice that the middle-aged couple down the street are having an extra go at drowning their sorrows. That man down in number 22, who got divorced last year, he must be seeing some woman for he has started ordering milk again. He also has a bit more bounce in his step, despite the fact that he has put on another half stone. It is a wonder that any woman could find him attractive. I wonder how long it will last this time. People fall in love, they fool themselves with some altruistic fairy tale, and for some time they say that they are happy. Eventually however, they all seem to have some realization of what it is that they are doing to each other. Then they either get divorced, which is probably the mots reasonable thing to do in the situation, or they go with the other option, and keep making life more and more miserable for each other.
The young couple right next to him must be expecting their first child. Not that she is showing yet, but now they are getting an extra bottle of milk. Women seem to get extra thirsty for milk when they are pregnant. Maybe it is because they have to substitute for the fluid that they usually get in the form of white wine. Or maybe the husband is chucking it down in some strange psychological show of sympathy for his laboring spouse. People do strange things.
The old couple right at the end of the road are the strangest of all. They have been married forever, but they are still smiling. I have suspected that they must be senile, but she still manages to send birthday cards to relatives and other people on the right dates throughout they year. He manages to walk the dog at precisely 8 am in the morning. They also still receive a daily newspaper, all of which seems to rule out dementia. I simply cannot quite figure it out. If they are drinking to make themselves so happy, then they would not have become this old and still managed to be so fit. Also there are hardly any alcohol bottles in their rubbish. They could be burrying the bottles in the garden, or maybe he is brewing it himself, though neither seems very likely. Maybe they have some other drug.
Every now and then all their children and grandchildren come over, and it is not just for Christmas: Easter and birthdays, too. She always has that man haul lots of food home which she then prepares for days, before the whole circus arrives. They must be perverse people of some strange sort, as they seem to take delight in all of life’s painful hassle. I do admit that lots of people do that. Yet sooner or later, surely most people figure out what a trap they have set themselves in, having to care for, and provide for people who most likely will never pay them back. I wonder why these people just never seem to learn or get any wiser: they just keep giving.
