Assisting the Missus in getting some shopping done just now in the big supermarket at IMM, I got to thinking of one of the essential rites of my childhood. I'm referring to the running of errands, just around the corner. Actually a fair few weren't exactly just around the corner, they were often up the road, the up in question being a long way in that direction.
You ran errands for your Mam, of course, and sometimes for other ladies in need of assistance who didn't have kids handy to do the needful. I suppose it started around the age of ten, at which point it was a bit exciting as well as scary, and went on to the mid-teens, when it was just tedious and an intrusion on personal liberty. At that point the answer to the question, Can you run an errand for us - it's just around the corner?, often felt like being framed as, Can't you do it yourself?, but that's not something you said to your Mam, if you valued your well-being.
The main thing about running an errand was to come back with the right kind of fish (or whatever it was you'd been sent to get) and the right change. I suppose it was a good preparation for the travails of adulthood. Do kids run errands these days? I don't seem to hear the phrase, but I think they should, if only in the interests of natural justice.
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