Seeking the Fellow Peasant.

I took some stuff to the recycling bins at the pub today, and guess what I saw inside one of them. A Sainsbury’s Basics orange juice carton. For those who don’t know, ‘Basics’ is Sainsbury’s no frills, economy range of general food items. In other words, the cheapest.

I thought only down-at-heel peasants bought Sainsbury’s Basics lines, and I thought I was the only down-at-heel peasant in the Shire, and I didn’t put it there, so who did? I'll bet whoever it was did so after dark, and then slipped into the pub for a quick pint to account for being on the road and on foot after sundown.

Whatever happened to my cherished perception of Shire dwellers as the sort who have their groceries delivered in hampers from Fortnum and Mason by a man wearing a painted smile and a dickie bow? Or at least do their shopping in a Marks and Spencer’s Food Hall and bring it home in a big car equipped with an auto-release handbrake.

So is there a closet peasant in the Shire? I need to know.