Alfredo Garnett, paisano
We were looking at the river in Navia, after finishing a walk (the 23rd annual coastal walk), and Julio reminded me that this was the river we’d crossed on the Camino de Santiago to reach Grandas de Salime. An old chap sitting on a bench beside us chimed in and said that it was a damn shame. The river used to be one of the best in northern Spain for trout, salmon and eels, but ever since they built the dam it’s been rubbish.
An entirely unrelated encounter with an old chap, this one didn't mention politics
So far so much random old person “I can remember when all this was fields” but he immediately segued into “This country is nothing but a whorehouse, a badly governed one at that” at which point I smiled, the thought of a badly governed whorehouse being amusing. “What are you smiling at?” he asked. I was on the point of explaining when he decided he had asked a rhetorical question and carried on a blistering denunciation of Zapatero, immigrants, young people and everything else he thought was responsible, returning time and again to his “este pais es nada mas que una casa de putas.” I looked at Julio, he was nodding along respectfully (he is, to be truthful, an unreconstructed right wing working class chap, which is why I never talk politics with him). They then fell to talking about military service, and how it was the best time of their lives (it was like an episode of Alf Garnett). The old feller proudly said he had volunteered to join the military because it was the only way to defend the country at the time, this was a bit much even for Julio, who seemed a little taken aback. Then they compared how tough life was for each of their fathers, how they had to do any work they could, and how the youth of today didn’t know they were born, and the skirts they wear… well, it just aint right. Eventually we made our excuses and left, I think Julio felt he had been out-conservatived, so he was a bit subdued and made up for it by having a go at the Spanish national side (who he said he wants to lose) because according to him, the government have promoted them as La roja (The reds) even though the Spanish flag has yellow as well, it’s a socialist plot, just like the red army, he said. A stunned silence was the only response I could make.
