DISAPPEARING UMBRELLAS: LOSS OF AN ERA

Lately it has been raining quite incessantly here in Manchester. The temperature has plummeted down... Autumn has arrived. Well rain or no rain I had to go to my local library to return the now due books and get some new ones. From the car park to the library is about 300 meters. The rain was continuing so I had to open my umbrella. There were a number of people, men, women and children walking around me. I felt a bit uneasy but could not think of any reason. After the library I walked to the local market and again the feeling of uneasiness returned. I looked around and suddenly the reason for this awkward feeling became clear. I was the only person with an umbrella, every one else was just walking as if there was no rain. Some, who did take notice of the rain, just increased their pace but still no umbrellas. I was the odd one out and that was making me uneasy. It is evolutionary behaviour. In any herd environment it is the odd one out that is most likely to be pursued by the predator. Though in my situation there was no evidence of any predator around but one can not completely unlearn millions of years of evolutionary traits on which the survival of the species once depended. Anyway once the reason was apparent I felt at ease.

Once almost everyone in UK who could afford carried an umbrella almost every day but now even on a rainy day most of the people do not. What has happened in the last twenty or so years to cause this change in the behaviour? I could think of a few reasons:

1. Increased density of population leading to shrinkage of personal space in public areas such as roads etc.

2. Decreased time spent walking , increased use of personal vehicles e.g. cars.

3. Areas of work, shopping, exercise and entertainment have increasingly become covered. Many of these used be under open sky in past.

4. Lack of tolerance in society in general, you will end in a brawl if your brolly pokes into someone's face or even touches him or her.

5. Availability of cheap waterproof hooded jackets, anoraks and Macs, thanks to china!6. Increased, almost universal use of mobile phones. Texting and snapping photos you need both hands, so you can not carry an umbrella simultaneously.

7. Identification of umbrella as a middle class symbol and hence a taboo for the middle class! Or it may just be that umbrellas simply have gone out of fashion, end of an era! 

What do you think?