Credit Crunch Hits Cringle Town

Cringle town the suburb of the world famous University City of Shafford is known simply as Cringle or old Cringle. Its fame has ensured the maintenance of its magnificent and complex past. Whereas its attractive medieval, Elizabethan and Victorian mystery has been its crème de la crème, modernity has formulated a paralytic catch up strategy with it. Modernity seems to be saying that if we can’t defeat we will join them.

The archways of its famous streets and the small bridges across its serene river are neon lit at sunset. Its narrow roads and streets are criss-crossed not only by early 1900s vintage cabs but also by modern BMW, Toyotas and Nissans. Youngsters with iPods and ear-phones plugged on, mix easily with occasional horse riders in the narrow town paths.

Basking on many years of achievements and discoveries at Shafford, Cringle town like other suburbs have over the years attracted modest to wealthy residents. These people maintain that the almost rural quiet lifestyle here suits their temperaments and careers. Should they need any change, all they had to do was to drive seventy miles south to the capital city of Elizabethville, or twenty miles north-east to Nork city.

The credit crunch that hit the world’s financial sector and big cities this year has not spared Cringle town. Many agree that there is a noticeable slow down, not necessarily in the modern boutiques or cafeterias sitting side by side with old cigarette and fishing net stores, but in some of the few industrial set-ups in the suburbs. This is not to say that Cringle has suddenly reduced its demand for some of the industrial goods, but these outlets of bigger conglomerates are either cutting down on their workforce, or shedding off expenses they can do without.

Although the effects of the crunch is hardly noticeable in the largely cosmopolitan populace, few Cringledans like Jim Crow can tell you that it is in the air, and you can see it in the faces and gaits of the people. The confident brisk walk has been replaced by the deliberately slow plod that one notices in many of the older generation of Cringle town. The common banter about the weather has been overtaken by an obsession with economic forecasting. This morning is no different and it is driving the forever optimistic Mel mad.

‘Mel can you imagine what would happen if Cringle Dry Cleaners wound down? Jim quavered.

‘Well, you know that it won’t soon Jim, and most people around here still want their laundry done at the dry cleaners’, Mel countered.

‘I just don’t know what I’d do Mel. I’ve known to do nothing else for fifteen years.’ Jim whimpered.

‘Can please stop your whining and thank your stars that you live in Shafford City’, She pleaded, ‘A lot of people would pay a fortune to be where you are.’

Although Jim won’t say it aloud, even at The Old Boar pub where his voice was always loudest, Mel Crow has always been his pillar of emotional and moral support. When the going was tough, and the neighbourhood and the world seemed overbearingly cruel she was always there for him. Having known no other man, and living with Jim for eighteen years had taught Mel some simple life rules. One of the cornerstones of these was that no woman has ever died from turning an occasional blind eye to a man’s flaws. The second rule was being there when he needed you, not exactly in the feet over rag scenario, but being the shoulder upon which he cried or the ear through which he poured his heart out.

Some of Jim’s failings were his inability to organize his finances. Although his total monthly obligations revolved mostly around rent and domestic recurrent expenditure, he never seemed to learn from his past mistakes. He would not only spend the part of his rent on ale and bitters, but occasionally put Mel through a serious mental strain trying to make ends meet on grocery and food. The paradox was that other than complain and offer some feeble reprimand she was always forgiving, and wholeheartedly sided with him when criticism came from outside.

This has not been without positive dividends. Standing by her man at whatever cost has ensured a stable matrimonial life to the Crows. Jim’s loyalty to Mel has remained rock steady and unquestionable, and she knows that at the end of the day, it was her policies that were running the household, and if she walked out on Jim, he would be a shipwreck. She reasoned in her heart that no man was born a rat. With nurturing and constant watch, any flop could turn into a pope.

Take for instance Jim’s miraculous turnaround since the beginning of this credit crunch. Though in her heart she had always feared the worst, she knew that agreeing with her husband’s paranoia would only drive him further into a drinking zombie. So, rather than join the bandwagon of purveyors of doom, she loudly preached tomorrow’s beam of light at the end of a dark tunnel of economic down-turn. The change in him was as astounding to Mel as it was to Zach, their landlord at 101 Blue Orion. His Friday and weekend escapades to The White Boar become fewer even as his rantings over Zach’s Chevrolet slowly subsided.

The Credit crunch which for many households has given way to the monster family crunch had become a family life-boat of the Jim Crows of 101 Blue Orion Cringle town.