There’s nothing like a spell of decent weather to get the generations wondering if childhood summers really were better back then.
Or a Scottish Government press release.
Up popped one this week on a summit being held for how a deposit return scheme will work, the back to the future plan for a small cash return on an empty drink bottle.
Scotland’s claimed leadership of the initiative is another strand of the drive towards zero waste and the battle against the plastics wreaking havoc in not just our coastal marine environment but the seas around the globe.
The fine detail of how it’ll all work is yet to be thrashed out, as is the amount you’ll have to pay extra on a bottle or tin, but costs in other countries include 22p in Germany and 8p in Sweden.
For a child of the Pola Cola era this is nothing new.
The late afternoon, end-of-week visit of the Bon Accord truck (usually a Ford) with its precious cargo of ade – lemon, orange, pineapple and every other flavour under the Angus sun – was a feature of school holidays where summer actually meant sun.
Perhaps they are rose-tinted recollections, coloured by memories of cash from Bon Accord bottles from every available source to add to the berry-picking pay packet of the long, hot summer.
The success of the new deposit return arrangement will be driven by environmental awareness and probably not the idea of getting five pence, or whatever it will be, back on a bottle or can.
And a press release which immediately followed the Scot Gov one on the green scheme was a depressingly familiar indicator of how difficult it might be to get bored young minds to tune in to the initiative.
Within days of the Angus schools breaking up for the summer, youngsters scaled scaffolding around the iconic Arbroath Abbey and left their graffiti mark high up on its ancient red sandstone.
They were, quite properly condemned as idiots and while a big bill to complete the delicate paint removal operation is bad enough, it is perhaps fortunate that the story wasn’t one of tragedy as a result of a child falling from the landmark.
