I'm never sure whether people see my wife and I as hippies or old fashioned oddballs or what. I don't care, we just do still get odd looks sometimes for the way we do things.
Take R's birth, and the preceding pregnancy. R was born at home, E didn't want to be in hospital unless it was necessary. E didn't use much in the way of painkillers during labour; a bit of gas and air and paracetamol. None of it was especially planned or deliberate, but when we mention the home birth we get such weird looks. Our friends find it utterly bizarre we did it.
With R, we used a big old Silver Cross pram. Again, people thought it odd we didn't buy new ( especially the bus drivers when we got on the bus with that thing..,) but we didn't see the point.
I think the thing that gets me most is the odd reactions people give because we do our shopping in the market, rather than in Tesco. I go to the greengrocer for the veg, the butcher for the meat, the deli for the cheese and ham and eggs. It's seen as such an odd thing to do now, even though the market is cheaper, better quality and everyone we use regularly know us by name. Now I know we're lucky in Newcastle, the Grainger Market is one of the best and oldest indoor markets in the country, but still. It makes me sad to see the queues of people in Tesco, all waiting to buy overpriced shite, whilst the local and independent market sits waiting for them over the road.
I'm not sure what these things really make me. A Yorkshireman probably. I prefer to recycle, shop local, use the bus. I like the routine of going to the market with R then getting tea and cake. She's such good company. Ok, i also loved the attention that the Silver Cross brought (though R loved it more). But I find it quite sad that more people don't share in this pleasure anymore, it's all self service checkouts admonishing you for scanning too quickly or not quickly enough.
I think others see us as old fashioned hippies for this, which is the biggest shame of all. I don't want to see the world turn into one giant Tesco, everything disposable with no style or substance.
Now then, where's me flat cap and whippet?
