Friday open thread: contrasts

[dolorosa_12]

It's school holidays in my part of the world, and as I've been out and about a lot more than usual, the profound effect this has in various physical spaces is incredible. A short list:

Trains to and from Cambridge for work have been half empty, whereas normally I'm fighting for a seat in a heaving crush of people, especially in the afternoon

The footpath when I walk to and from work is completely empty, whereas normally I'm navigating around a seething mass of secondary school students

The roads in central Cambridge are completely empty, whereas normally they're gridlock

My bus ride home today (I caught the bus instead of the train) was in constant motion instead of being stuck in crawling gridlocked traffic

Most astonishingly, the swimming pool where I do laps four mornings a week has also been half full each time, even though my fellow swimmers are not school-age children, but rather other adults — most of them retirement-age

In other words, the contrast between life during school holidays and life ordinarily is stark, and immediately visible. It's what's inspired my prompt this week: can you think of a situation of similarly stark, concrete contrasts?

Comments

[el_staplador]

A seaside town in summer and in winter. Shops and cafés, bustling or with the shutters down. The sea, blue and calm or grey and angry. The beach, cluttered with people and towels and sandcastles, or else deserted but for a couple of dogs and their owner. (And quite possibly the public toilets, locked up.)

[author_by_night]

For sure... always wonder that people in those towns do the rest of the year.

I've been to waterfront towns that were quieter in the off-season, but in one case it was a little different because it was close to a medium-sized city, and also in the southern US, so it stayed reasonably warm. Going to those towns instead of staying in the city proper is actually pretty common. Another time it was a much more remote town, and definitely quiet in the way you describe.

[dolorosa_12]

always wonder that people in those towns do the rest of the year

I read a book about this recently (a cultural history of seaside resort towns in the UK), and the answer is — cope badly. They're already among the most deprived parts of the country, and it doesn't help that most people would prefer to go to the sea on holidays around the Mediterranean these days, which adds to the difficulties of these British towns.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh yes, the contrast in that case is extreme, particularly in the UK (although there are seaside towns like that that I've experienced in Australia as well). I've been to alpine resorts during the summer, and it's a similarly stark contrast — the absence of tourists is eerie.

[kore]

Well, this is a bummer one, but after lockdown happened, the parking lot five stories down from our living room windows emptied out completely and stayed empty for months. There were no car sounds -- car alarms regularly go off there at least once an hour. Also no construction sounds, whcih was very weird since this neighbourhood has been gentrified for most of the last decade. We live between two arterial streets (Pine and Pike) and a few blocks from a major freeway. Almost no car noise, too. The birdsong was very loud. But there were also lots of ambulance sirens, also sounding very loud, in that silence.

Months before lockdown was over, the parking lot started filling up again, and I could hear some construction sounds, and that's how I knew for most people it was basically over, evne though it hadn't been officially lifted yet.

[dolorosa_12]

Ooof, yes, that is a sad one. I remember a similar thing here, exactly as you describe — there was no traffic noise, virtually none at all, for all of March and April 2020. It was quite lovely, until you remembered the reason (but then again a lot of things about lockdown life I found quite lovely, until I remembered the reason).

[justanorthernlight]

I live in a city with a super popular college (American) football team (also the "college" is a university, but I digress), and back when I worked in retail our store was always almost empty during games. People would trickle in after, but there was a sharp contrast in weekend busyness during the sports season and outside of it.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, I can well imagine! That's definitely a strong set of contrasting situations!

[rmc28]

The university's West Hub canteen (well, and tbh the whole building), in and out of university Term.

[dolorosa_12]

Indeed! It's not so noticeable where I work as it's not really affected by term dates, but I remember the Sidgwick site being similar back when I was a postgraduate student (postgraduates of course, continued coming in even out of term).

[charlottenewtons]

Going from a small town to a city - shops opening later, more regular public transport, seeing people out and about after six o'clock.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh yes, that's a good one. I am a city person through and through (the irony being that I grew up in a city that — because it's suburban and spread out and has a population of 400,000 rather than in millions — my mother (who's from Sydney) always described as being 'a small country town'), and find it incredibly unsettling being in places where there aren't people outside at night, signs of activity at all times of day, and the sounds of other human beings in earshot at all times — even though this was not the case where I grew up (due to the large size of the suburban blocks and how spread out the city was).

Where I live now seems like a tiny village, but thankfully I live in a row of terraces on a main road near shops that are open early and late, so there's always a lot of human presence (and the sound of the neighbours through the walls).