Cold Hard Cash and Bob Cratchit’s Camden Town

 We arrived safely in London and no sooner did we  drop off our bags in the room, my husband said, “We have to find a bank.”  Apparently, the same conversation was taking place in our friends’ room. We immediately reconvened in the lobby and armed with our Google maps, set out to find a reputable bank—never one of those suspect Exchange kiosks!

The need to have hard cash in your pocket is clearly a generational thing. To those of us above 50 or even way above, there is comfort in knowing that you can successfully  participate in the day-to-day commerce of the country in which you are visiting. Of course we have credit cards—how else could we pay for the hefty city prices of food and lodging?  But there’s all the other things, like tipping the maids and the porters, who I have yet to see carry around a credit card machine, need to be appreciated by providing them with a pound or two. 

This is not the case for our children’s generation. It absolutely astounds me that our kids, who are now adults, never carry a bit of cash on them. Paying for a Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee with a  Visa card is almost too much for me to watch. Would it kill any of them to hide a $20 bill behind their debit card (which is attached to the back of their phone by some sticky thing-don’t get me started!) so that they could leave some poor hotel cleaning lady a tip?!?  Apparently it would!

This morning, we decided to visit a place none of us had ever been and thought that Camden Market would be a great place to spend the morning. The Market located in West London’s Camden Town, consists of a number of adjoining retail stores and stalls, with a panoply of wonderful cuisine choices. While none of us are big shoppers, our family has known about Camden Town most of our lives because it was the home of “A Christmas Carol’s” Bob Cratchit and his family. We love all things Christmas and consequently adore Dickens’ story of the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge.  

We can’t remember if the address of the poor-overworked clerk, Mr. Cratchit was mentioned in the actual written story by Dickens or in one of the 20 movie versions (we have seen them all, many, many times), but somehow we knew he lived in Camden Town.  In fact, it became a running joke when our daughter visited her British boyfriend (now husband!) and they planned to go to Camden Market during the visit, my husband would tell them, “To say hello to Bob Cratchit at Number 2 Porter Street.” This was usually followed by our daughter rolling her eyes….

Two things need to be mentioned: 1. My husband knows that “A Christmas Carol” is a work of fiction and Mr. Cratchit, Tiny Tim and all the rest of the Cratchits did not exist; and 2. My husband loves maps. After several subway stops and one transfer, we finally arrived at our destination. While I was haggling over a few lovely pashminas, my husband must have been mapping out Bob Cratchit’s work route in his head, as he certainly didn’t appear to be shopping! When my purchases had been made, my dear husband asked me, “How did poor Bob Cratchit go all the way from Camden Town to Central London every day for work?” As I looked over at him in disbelief, I wasn’t sure if my husband was actually worried about a fictional clerk from the 19th Century or mad at Charles Dickens for picking a neighborhood his clerk could never have realistically lived in and made it to work on time!

We spent a wonderful evening with our new son-in-law’s family and tomorrow, we are headed north to the Dales!