Masthead
One of my photos

Crawley in bloom

June 30th, 2006 · Posted by Skuds in Life · 1 Comment · Life

Flower display, Crawley Crawley Council usually put on a fine display for the Britain In Bloom competition with hanging baskets everywhere and troughs of flowers on the railings in the middle of the roads. Maybe its a bit over-the-top, and surely adds to the tax burden, but who really wants to live in a colourless place?

This year its a bit different, with fears of water shortages making it inadvisable to cover the town with displays which all need plenty of water. Some towns (Margate?) have gone for using realistic fake flowers, but Crawley has had displays made up by all the local schools.

The first ones I saw were the ones near Three Bridges station, which are the most colourful I have seen so far. I keep meaning to take a photo but have not got round to it yet. This picture is courtesy of George on Flickr, and is of a display on Southgate Avenue. The ones at Three Briges are even brighter.

I think these are brilliant, but it seems that some miserable sods think they lower the tone of the town. The Crawley Observer reports that the Maidenbower website is full of comments calling the displays ‘tacky’. ‘hideous’ and ‘awful’.

What do they expect? Van Gogh’s Sunflowers? When their own children bring a painting home from school do they stick it to the fridge or do they just say “That looks nothing like a dog – no pocket money for you!”?

When I see the fake flowers and posters I can’t help thinking how the kids who made them must feel. Instead of their work going up in the school corridor to be seen only by themselves and parents on an open evening, they are on the busiest roads in town, seen by thousands of people. When they go past they can look there and say “I did that!”. What a brilliant feeling. None my juvenile works ever got such a public exposure when I was at primary school, but if they had I would have been bursting with pride and enthusiasm – even if did look like they were done by an infant.

I can just imagine these kids spending hours at school, tongues protruding in concentration, as they put the finishing touches to their work. With the naive optimism of youth they are thinking how their small contribution will not only brighten up the place but will make passing motorists think about water conservation and about environmental matters in general.

And then the response they get is “it looks so amateurish.”

Some people have no beauty in their soul.

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