Good Old Fashioned Winters

[rowan]

As we are in the grips of another icey blast, it takes me back to the winters of our childhood when the washing on the line got as stiff as boards...............the sheets were what fascinated me with both sides stuck together and sounded as if they were being torn when my Nan parted them.

I remember my Nan saying you must leave the whites out on a frosty night to help whiten them..........I wonder if there is any truth in that? They certainly looked white!!

The ashes from the fire was thrown over the garden paths and the footpaths (early recycling?) and the cream on top of the milk stood up out of the bottles.

No long trousers for us kids but chapped legs and chiblains. Marks on your legs from sitting too near the fire, I still have a mark on my leg from where a spark spat out of the fire, my Nan told me to spit back at it!!!.

But life went on as if there were no snow..........we still ran errands for Nan and played in Ward End park sliding down the slopes and having snowball fights and returning home to feel the glow on our faces as we entered the sitting room where the fire was.

No central heating for us but a crock hot water bottle and a cosy eiderdown with Grandads work coat on top, but not if he was working nights, for the goods train still had to run, regardless of the weather.

The buses still ran and work was still done, life just carried on as usual.................were we braver in those days, stronger and had more guts?....................or was it because our parents and grand parents were stronger than people today and were we just children who knew how to play and not be "little grown ups"?

But I am glad now of our central heating and long trousers, I am glad that I don't have to trudge out in thick snow to go to the shops, I am glad of our nice warm car....................but I still like a cold bedroom and the window open.
And most of all............... I am glad of my wonderful memories of my lovely Grandparents with whom my brother and I would spend our holidays from Sir Josiah Masons Orphanage..................... to them I send my deepest love, even though they have been gone for many, many years.......................my time with them was the happiest of my life.
They taught us to be children and to play whatever the weather.

 

[johndavies]

What wonderfully descriptive writing rowan. As a child of the 50s I remember huge coal fires, the coats on the bed supplementing the thin ex army blankets. Waking up in the morning with the nights condensation frozen solidly inside the metal window frames. One everlasting memory was that of my mother during the great snows of the early 60s. She had a cleaning job at the swan pub in Aldridge, a distance of a mile from our flat and in 18 inches of snow she walked to work in white wellingtons.... and if she hadnt the rent wouldnt have been paid.
I believe we were more resiliant in those days. We had better developed immune systems as we didnt live in sterile environmments and being stoic was a necesity. We all adapt to changing conditions however and I am sure our Victorians ancestors would be making similiar comparisons.

 

[Arkrite]

Being a child in the fifties your post struck a lot of chords with me. Now we have trains which are stopped by wet leaves or a bit of ice.Out on a cold day recently my camera would not work. It was too cold for the electronics to work.My mechanical 35mm never stopped.Despite better cars,tyres and roads it appears to take less for the road system to grind to a halt.
Surely we cannot all be looking back whilst wearing rose coloured glasses ?

 

[mauricesellars]

Hi What about the winter of 1947, we opened the front door and the snow had drifted 5 feet high against it. In 1952 a bucket of water was frozen solid in 25 mins. just as a comparison we have had a temp of 41c (105f) today here in South Aust Moss in Aus

 

[db84124]

"....... I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six." Taken from A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

 

[john knight]

Morning all,
I don't think we'll ever beat the winter of `46-47 I opened the front door to our house in Cromwell St. and found myself faced with a wall of snow, I can still hear myself saying "mom I can't get out".
The only way we got to school was through the trenches that had been dug and If I remember right it lasted for weeks and weeks.

 

[Lynda Harvey]

My memories are from the fifties in Brum, and when the snow started to melt. It was like a minefield stepping out of our back door, as the overhang of snow could have killed 'yer if it dropped on your head. Does Brum still get it as bad?
Lynda

 

[Alberta]

I lived in a remote cottage at the top of a lane in the Staffs moorlands in 1946/47,we lived with my Gran.
I remember us being completeley cut off,luckily my grandmother always had a well stocked pantry and Dad being a miner we always had plenty of coal for our range so we warm enough and could cook.
Our water was frozen so Gran got saucepans of snow and heated them,wouldn't like to think of that today with all the air pollution.
Dad started to dig a pathway towards the bottom of the lane and luckily people who lived there were digging to get to us.
I think it must have been pretty worrying for the grown ups but we loved it.

 

[ColinB]

I'm currently attempting to transfer about 3000 old photos taken by me, to digital, in the latest batch I found this one, which would date from the early '80's.

A winter scene, Aqueduct Road Solihull Lodge.

Colin

 

[Stitcher]

However bad the winters were, everyone still got to work and back. The milkman, coalman, baker and postman still got the deliveries through albeit late, but who minded as long as they called. Buses still got through the fog with the clippie walking in front, schools were open as usual.

 

[Laurie_B]

I can remember the winter 1962/3.There was a lot of snow and ice that seemed to hang around for ages.The snow drifted so deep in places it would be over the tops of my wellies!And I suffered quite a bit from chilblains.It was so cold I would scrape the ice on the inside of my bedroom window.
I had a paper round at the time and it was too treacherous to go round on my bike,so I had to trudge through the snow on foot.I do remember one man who was rather annoyed that I was a little bit late delivering his Daily Telegraph.No pleasing some folk!

 

[Stitcher]

Laurie, do you think any deliveries would take place today if we had 2 feet of snow? Some people will moan if you give them money, they would probably want new notes or something similar.
When I was a trucker and later a cabbie, I can not remember ever being unable to complete my journey. I knew some scottish men who travelled from Dumfries to Tyseley, six down on Sunday night and as they went back monday another six came down. This was before the M6 and they never missed a night.

 

[Laurie_B]

Hi Stitcher-I doubt people would venture out these days with that amount of snow around.The country doesn't seem able to cope with just an inch or two of snow these days.

 

[Ray Barrett]

The winter of 1946-47 wow ! that was some winter,trams on Aston Cross with drifted snow reaching the upstairs windows.
Tunnels and trenches just to be able to move about,that was in a city, people in the countryside were cut of for weeks.National servicemen given leave so that they could go home and have a wash and shave,because the barracks were frozen solid.
Our school U.T.S. had burst boilers so we didn't go to school for weeks,down Aston park every day on our home made sledges.sliding down the hill overlooking Villa Park,straight into the Villa wall,no worries about traffic there wasn't any.
How did we cope? with the country almost bankrupt from the war and very limited recources,who knows...but we did.

 

[oldMohawk]

Yes that was a real winter. I remember walking to school along middle of the Aldridge Rd in a 3' deep snow trench, found a 'sixpence' in it. Searching for wood and standing in coal queues. Sledging on half an Anderson shelter - they could carry about 10 kids but were difficult to steer and a few cuts off the sharp edges..

 

[JohnO]

Hm, I'm experiencing a ''good old fashioned winter'' right now! We've had snow since a week before Christmas and it hasn't gone away, just added layer upon layer. The heavy fall last night has now reduced my car to a mere, barely discernable lump in the landscape! There'll be no 'Old Years Night' trip to our local pub for me to night

. It is all achingly beautiful, but enough is enough!

 

[pamhol]

My memories of "good old fashioned winters" were of my sister and I standing in front of the gas oven in the kitchen. Nan would put our clothes in the oven so that they were warm for us to put on, while dad was lighting the coal fire in the back room and drawing it with newspaper, which often set on fire! ..........

 

[mariew]

I remember my dad drawing the fire with a news paper, me and my brother would sit there waiting to see if it would set on fire, which it quite often did.

 

[pamhol]

I remember the roaring sound of the fire behind the newspaper. The chimney did once set on fire after dad had drawn it. The flames went so high up the chimney it caught light. The fire brigade had to come and put it out. There was so much smoke in the room, we couldn't see anything. The trouble with a real fire, it was hot while the flames were new, but when it died down and more coal was put on, it went cold.......thank heaven for central heating!