Today, I did not carry the world on my shoulders. Instead, I carried it in a bag.
The world cost me just £8. I thought it was a bargain but I suppose in buying the world I have also purchased all of its troubles. From desertification to starvation and from exploitation to deforestation. Yes - now I come to think of it, maybe it wasn't such a bargain after all.
It was in a battered cardboard box in the Cancer Research shop at Rotherham's Parkgate Shopping Centre.
When I spotted it, an elderly lady with silvery hair and silver-rimmed spectacles said to me, "Oh, I was looking at that but I have got no room for it in my house."
I told her that I was tempted but I had come to Rotherham to take a long walk and I did not really wish to be burdened by the world. I wanted my hands free.
"It won't weigh much," she advised. "A big, strong bloke like you. It'll not trouble you. Get a bag with handles!"
Holding up the world like Atlas in tales of yore, I asked the nice lady where she had been. She told me that the furthest she had been was to the Caribbean Sea on a cruise: "when my husband was alive". I showed her where it was. She remembered Barbados.
So I bought the world and a big bag with a suitable floral design to carry the world therein.
And as I left with the world peeping over the rim of the bag, I jested to her, "I am sure you are an agent for Cancer Research... persuading innocent visitors like me to spend our money here!"
She laughed and so did the ginger-bearded shop volunteer who completed the transaction. I suspect he was a man.
Your grandchildren will love this!
ReplyDeletePhoebe seems ready to meet her first globe and I will be her enthusiastic guide.
DeleteNew reader here. Do you have anyone in your circle who believes the earth is flat?
ReplyDeleteWelcome. I don't have a circle, I have a square Carol.
DeleteHad we but world enough and time ...
ReplyDeleteAndrew Marvell (1621-1678). Poetry Foundation online.
Along with Ode To A Nightingale (Keats) this was F Scott Fitzgerald's favourite poem.
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near ;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Andrew Marvell grew up in Winestead, East Yorkshire. Just a few miles from where I was born.
DeleteHow up to date is it? I don't have a globe anymore, but I do have a world atlas. I love stuff like that and think it's sad that GPS and the like are taking its place. Not only is reading a road map a skill, so is folding one back up!
ReplyDeleteAs Steve says below, it is pretty much up to date though The Gulf of Mexico has not been changed to The Gulf of America as decreed by The Almighty Emperor of America.
DeleteThat looks like a relatively new globe, as I see South Sudan and the rest of Sudan are shown as separate countries. A good find!
ReplyDeleteI have been wanting a globe for a good long while. £8 for a dream is okay.
DeleteI just checked and mine also has Sudan and South Sudan, though I have had mine for several years now.
DeleteYou could have sung this (words and translation here) as you strode along.
ReplyDeleteI am miserable Atlas! a world,
DeleteI have to bear the whole world of pain,
I bear the unbearable, and my heart wants to break –
My heart wants to break in my body.
Ha-ha! Nice one Marcie!
Given the condition it's in, £8 is way too much! And Neptune's prettier; go for that.
ReplyDeleteNext time I pop into Sheffield's Moor Market, I will see if they have got Neptune for sale on the planets stall.
DeleteIt suits the expression "You have the weight of the world on your shoulders," though luckily it was a miniature version!
ReplyDeleteThe World Is Not Enough!
DeleteThat seems a very reasonable price to pay for the world.
ReplyDeleteYou ask some great questions about the world.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you now have control of the world, so you better step up to the crease and do a decent job.
ReplyDeleteA good find. It looks in good nick.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what has become of the world of my childhood. Maybe it is still somewhere in my Mum's attic. It had a cable and switch to light up like a lamp, and my sister and I loved it. My parents made the world theirs in the 1960s when they got married and started a family.
ReplyDelete8 pounds is a good price for it. I also have a world right here, sitting on top of a set of drawers over to my right as I type this. It's a small world, only about 8 inches tall. When the twins are bigger I shall buy them "the world" and show them where to find Australia.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have one like that that lit up like a lamp but I think I may have given it to Kay in the past.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask if your world is up to date, but I see that has already been asked and answered above. My parents had a globe that must have been from the 1950s, but I did not keep it, as too many names have changed since then. I still have my old school atlas, printed in 1964, which is enough to keep me confused! ;) I also have a much smaller globe of somewhat later date, but on that the text is so tiny that I can hardly read it. So it mainly just serves as reminder that the world is really round rather than flat...
ReplyDeleteYou and your grandkids will know more about the world than most. Teach them to find the continents and countries. Not on their phone, but on the globe.
ReplyDeleteYou don't see globes as often as you used to. Or perhaps I just don't notice them.
ReplyDeleteTake care of that world, Mr. P. Someone needs to.
You've got the whole world in your hands (or bag)!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic find. Phoebe, Margot and Zack will love it, and who could blame them?
ReplyDeleteI do love a globe, the only one I currently own is a glass one containing a nice single malt. I favour Parkgate over Meadowhall so regularly visit that same shop. Congratulations on a brilliant charity shop find.
ReplyDelete