Garvagh Fast Food

It is a small village. According to the last available census figures its population is 1288 . It does of course have a catchment area. But on one side Ballymoney is pulling at its sphere of influence as is Coleraine. Maghera is also pecking at its hinterland.

By no means could one describe it as a major centre of population. Despite all of this it presently has two pizza joints, a Chinese takeaway, a fish and chip shop and a fish n' chip/ burger shop.

It is strange how the,"Take Away," has become such a ubiquitous feature of our villages, towns and cities. When I was a sprog, (in the fifties and sixties) the fish and chip shop was, by and large, visited by the nocturnal reveller and the, " Tillies'" on their two week holiday. That was my perception anyhow.  It was very much the treat of the manual worker. Nothing wrong with that.

Nowadays these fast food establishments are becoming the choice of our burgeoning middle classes. Why spend three quarters of an hour preparing and cooking a meal for your family when you can drive three miles to a takeaway, queue for ten minutes to have your order taken, wait fifteen minutes for your order to be cooked, pay your twenty pounds and drive three miles home with the caffeine free ,"coke," which you have purchased at the local petrol station? The answer in many instances is convenience, (aka laziness.)

Society is lazy. Society is wasteful. Society needs a kick in the proverbials and maybe the odd lesson in domestic science and family accounts!