Giving thanks to the boys in blue

He wanted to congratulate the police. And rightly too.

We don't have too many letters passing on thanks to our boys in blue. On the other hand, we get plenty grumbling about them.

The most common complaint we hear is that bobbies are never there when the public needs them. After that comes the observation that when your car has been damaged, you don't get a constable but you are offered a crime number to pass on to your insurance company.

It isn't all bad news, though.

Ron was delighted at the prompt response which followed concerns he and a neighbour had over the whereabouts of an elderly chap who lived nearby.

He was in his mid-80s and hadn't been seen for several days.

Ron popped round and hammered on the doors and then banged on the windows.

All with no result or response.

So a call was made to the police station, resulting in a couple of constables arriving at the scene in reasonably quick time.

The story gets better because it had a happy ending. The old gent hadn't been seen because he was recuperating following a minor operation to his foot and couldn't walk too well.

Presumably there thanks all round, a few smiles and life returned to normal in Ecclesfield, with Ron settling down before his computer to fire off to The Star an email of appreciation for the police's prompt attentions.

What particularly struck me about the incident was that the 'missing' man was missed when he failed to make his usual trip to the local Morrison's store for his lunch.

How many of us have little routines to our life which we follow without realising they have an impact on others?

Clearly in this case, Ron's neighbour is a creature of habit and this is widely known among his friends and acquaintance. Not only is it something which is important to him - or he wouldn't do it so often - but it is a marker in the day of people watching the world go by.

There goes so-and-so, they will silently comment to themselves. It must be such-and-such a time.

And that will prompt a little routine in their life, perhaps.

In this day and age, there are too few such pillars upon which to anchor our lives.

It is a throwback to a quieter, calmer, more comforting time when people, rather than their possessions, mattered.

This is one little corner of our sprawling city where such a way of life clings on. And I am sure there are others, with people relishing in the role of being good neighbours, not because it is a feather in their cap but because it is what they want to be.

You see, there are more good people than otherwise. And they do good things because that is what is natural to them.

The problem is, as I see it, that way of life is gradually being eroded. Not because people are becoming worse. But because they are becoming more insular.

That is what is happening as we turn to our tv sets and turn out backs on neighbours.

Sadly there is no solution to this growing problem. We are on a slippery slope. But we can remind ourselves occasionally that there is more to life than locking the door and turning to a tv soap for comfort.

If we only make the effort.