Shape of things to come?

Anne Rickard

In the centre of Bridport on Saturday 2nd January at around 12.30pm there was a power cut.   Shops were plunged into darkness, no tills would open, goods couldn't be weighed, food couldn't be weighed or cooked, cafes closed so the customers were turfed out into a cold street. 

 
Within minutes rumours were rife that it would be at least 24 hours before ‘normality’ returned and there was a sense of confusion and dissatisfaction.

Some smaller shops stayed open (charity shops mostly, we noticed) because they had some daylight, but had to jam their tills open in order to trade.

The best survivors were the market tradesmen.  Low-energy users to start with, they had plenty of natural light, no electric tills and laughed all the way to the bank as shoppers' attention turned to them.  After all, people were out to shop!

Traffic moved smoothly and easily, with no lights to control it, and people watched out for each other.  Only one hoot was heard, from someone behind an extra-cautious driver. 

It occurred to me that this was a perfect chance to experience time without instant, endless electricity and interesting to notice who was quickest to explore alternative ways to do things.  

After around an hour, power was back and consumption continued unabated.  I wondered whether any changes would be put in place by those who lost trade but of course it was far too short a time to really encourage any long-term change in behaviour.  I wondered whether deliberately cutting electricity on a regular basis (save for those whose health would suffer) might force us to adapt to an alternative, less energy-dependent lifestyle.