My village

What can I say about my village?

To begin with the description, I'm going to write about my village in the past and now. I live in a small town in the south of Spain, it is called Lobres. 50 years ago, the town was very different. Approximately, there was the same population as there is now.

Although now it is small, before it was even smaller. There didn't use to be any modern buildings. Now there are some blocks of flats. There used to be one shop, where the was food. now there are two supermarkets, a butcher's, one clothes shop, and two bars. Although too many people go to shopping centres, the oldest people go to the shops there. Also there was a church, and it is the same as now, but it was repaired once. In the village there used to be sugar plantations, it was the main crop in the area for that reason there used to be a sugar factory. Now in its place there is a rum factory.

50 years ago there used to be an old bridge which used to go to other towns, but it fell down in 1973. Now there is a new bridge. Most people used to ride horses, donkeys or similar. People used to work in fields in 'Palmares' and they had to walk across the mountain without minding the weather (boiling or freezing). What a terrible journey! Now there are a lot of cars, and there is a big motorway which surrounds the village. There used to be a bus station near the road, where all the traffic cross. How dangerous! Now the bus station is at the entrance of the village.

People went to Cataluña to find a better life, because here the only job that there used to be was farmer.

My grandparents lived here. They say that there wasn't much to do then, except when there were the patronal parties. My granny used to go with the other women to wash the clothes to the river. There used to be a small room used as a school, now there is a state school. There didn't use to be a health centre, if you got an illness, you couldn't go to the doctor. All the people liked going out, and standing in the street (children playing football or many old-women talking in the door of their houses). Now fewer people go out, they prefer to stay at home playing computer games or with their mobiles. Children used to be by mid-night on the street.

All in all, life was quieter then, but now we have technological things which permit use to communicate without need of getting out of the village. Life has changed so fast!