Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

I do remember the winter of '62-'63 fairly clearly, even though I'd just turned 4. We lived on the western slopes of Dartmoor, on the outskirts of a village. Apart from the other villagers, we had virtually no physical contact with the outside world for about 6 weeks. My younger brother was about 3 months old & we lived in a rambling old vicarage with I think 5 radiators coming off the Rayburn, sporadically heating the main living rooms; I well remember picking the icicles off the inside of my bedroom window. The shepherd moved his lambing ewes into our scullery & the tiniest lambs were popped into the warming oven; I helped bottlefeed at least one orphan. The shepherd himself took up residence in the shed, outside!

But nobody starved & I think the worst that happened to anyone was chilblains. IIRC at least one baby was born in the village during the "siege" quite safely, thanks to District Nurse, who lived down there, and Dr Hugh Jolly (a childcare expert) who lived nearby. I suspect things wouldn't go so well now; everyone had pantries full of preserves & sheds full of garden produce, and shared with their neighbours, who were in many cases their cousins anyway. We had a shop which sold the basics, and a Post Office; people only went into town once a month or so to stock up, although the fish van came out to us twice a week too when we weren't snowed in.

Looking back, we were only just out of the rationing mindset (we still had several rationing books when we moved into town in '64) & everyone had a concept of fair shares & looking out for each other, as well as Being Prepared. That'd be a completely foreign concept to many of my younger neighbours now...

Popperwell

I don't remember it TW and I would be approx the same age as yourself.

thriftwizard

I think the reason I remember it so well is that there were so many memorable things, to a 4 y.o. girl - my adorable new brother, the lambs, the shepherd's smile (he was virtually silent, didn't do conversation at all, but his smile was like seeing the sun come out from behind the clouds - a massive grin that split his face in two and wrinkled his bright blue eyes so much they almost disappeared) the snow crunching underfoot, the massive snowball my older brothers made (which was only partially melted on Easter Day - the snow had started on Boxing Day) trudging over frozen fields to visit Granny Ball in her cosy vardo & take her a fresh chicken, some eggs & some deeply-suspect parsnips - not to mention porridge - I think we had porridge with every meal! It can't have been easy for the adults - my mother remembers it with absolute horror - but to a small child, it was wonderful & fascinating. Possibly partly because the adults had to stop playing their boring everyday games & live in the real world for once!

missrlr

Wasn't born for the big freeze, but having lived many many miles off the beaten track until I went to uni with no central heating , (but a fab wood burner) we were regularly snowed in, every year without fail it seemed. Stocks of food, others supplies, general prepping for the unforeseen and neighbourly interactions were normal actually irrespective of the weather.

Quote of the day from a female MrT shopper "we are nowhere near finished shopping, go and get another trolley I am stocking us up right now!" To her significant other male companion who raised his eyebrows heavenward in askance. Her trolley was full of crisps and fruit shoots etc ....

DH wanted fresh toms so had taken a small walk around to get these and had a nose at the seduced section, got a couple of swedes and a bag of pasta. Snowing light but constant here. Probably going to accumulate royally so feeling quite happy to be at home with a big steaming mug of tea and some books!

sb44

Funny how we watched The Day After Tomorrow just the day before the snow started!

Seems that involved Polar Vortices.............

I knew I should have bought some bricks for a rocket stove .

I wonder what the odds are regarding widespread power cuts.

I suppose if we have something rodent proof we can keep our frozen food in the garden. Then again, it will be so bl**dy cold in the houses the food will be ok anyway!

Let's think ourselves lucky that even if we do have no heating at least we have a roof over our heads, we could huddle together in one small room. Spare a thought for those poor b*ggers on the streets in cardboard boxes and on benches etc.

westcoastscot

We prepped for, and got, heavy snow yearly until I moved here to the west coast almost 30 years ago (cannot believe its that long ago!!) so it wasn't such a shock to us. I also think, generally, that people were better equipped and experienced which we aren't today. No one I knew had heating other than the coal fire in the living room, so we were used to making pictures in the ice on the insides of window :-), shops were local so while ever they had stocks we were fine, people cooked and baked from scratch routinely anyway.

I think we'd struggle if the cold spell went on for any length of time now. Scotland still gets it's share of wild weather, and it often isn't reported further south, we just expect it and live with it, but it's worrying how cities and bigger towns, and southern UK generally, now grinds to a halt relatively easily. We've got used to convenience as a way of life, and living standards generally are considered so much higher - meaning there's further to fall when the SHTF! As we get more incomers here now we're more connected road-wise to the rest of the UK I see more people relying solely on electricity, which goes off routinely for varying lengths of time, I see people relying on getting off the peninsular for work - and we have road closures routinely - it all adds to the stress, both personally and on local services, and I see more people travelling to the city for grocery shopping - impacting greatly on our local trade. Supermarket delivery is just starting to appear here, which will also spell the end of our local stores I suspect - be interesting to see what happens next time there's a landslip on the Rest! - and I do feel there must be a limit to how reliant we can allow ourselves to be on the powers that be before it backfires horrendously.

I do recall that bread disappeared quickly, but most of us made our own and had stocks of bread flour. The only real problem was that sugar disappeared - so when stocks of those went we really missed it!

WCS

Popperwell

With you mentioning sugar WCS,
For some reason I have been using some kind of sweetner in my coffee lately but not the usual ones that get mentioned in a bad way but I need approx 4-5 in a drink to taste it, thinking about it I don't add sugar to cereal or porridge nor tea. And also thinking about it the only items I like salt on in general are tomatoes, potatoes/chips and possibly celery.

You know there is one thing(no two)that I have never really used...pepper and mustard. I have some pepper in the house perhaps I should start and add it, maybe I should buy some mustard of some kind...perhaps a mild one if I can find one.

catznine

We took advantage of the break in the snow yesterday to visit ds and his little family in their new flat. So glad we did as I am now reassured that they are snug and warm where they are. A good move for them I feel and also near to family on both sides :j
While dh helped ds assemble some of the flat pack furniture, dil and I did some unpacking and helped to occupy our very happy and inquisitive little gd, dd and her lovely oh arrived with delicious home made lasagne and puds for the troops! Poor girl is still in a lot of pain after her fall on the ice, thank goodness she was wearing a woolly hat with a bobble as it cushioned her head as she went down. She brought along her hot water bottle though to ease the pain.

Ginnyknit after seeing my daughter you have my sympathy! Ouch! Hope you recover quickly!

I watched the programme on the big freeze of 63 on i player and can remember some of it. I was 7 years old and we were back in the country for a few months between Dads postings. I remember staying with my grandparents which thankfully was near to shops and a coal yard so close to supplies when they got through. I have clear memories of walking to school (they didn't close back then) with my Mum through large snow drifts and the snow falling inside my wellies, freezing my feet and it hurt!:( Then changing into socks and shoes and letting the socks dry on the radiators. This is where they attempted to defrost the bottles of school milk, I say attempted as there were always lumps of frozen milk left in the bottles which we were made to drink! Yuck to this day my dh and I can't stand milk that has been frozen.

I can also remember watching out of my grandparents bedroom window, the snow drifting down the road outside into huge snow drifts, also looking beyond that into the window of a little bungalow opposite where a young couple were visiting with their new little baby. (yes I was a nosy kid lol) Maybe they, like us were visiting family nearer into town with more readily available supplies.

I also remember making patterns in the ice on the inside of the windows, although to be fair that was a constant part of my childhood winters with no central heating, just the coal fires downstairs. We have become soft, me especially I feel. Central heating, plenty of warm clothes, good and warm transport, easy cook food, takeaways etc., I love to cook from scratch though and it warms me up. I do wonder how we would all cope if we ever had to go through such a bitter and long drawn out freeze as 63 again!

Right off to make more soup for the freezer as dh is taking a portion with him to work every day with his sandwiches. Todays is potato, carrot and onion soup blitzed in the processor, might add some of the app foods country mix for extra filling power!

Catz x

Shropshirelass

Hi everyone

I've not posted for a while but just wanted to say, Popperwell, since hubby diagnosed with high blood pressure (8 years ago) and I started reducing salt in cooking, I have stopped putting salt in potatoes.

I use dried mixed herbs sprinkled on boiled pots instead, very tasty and we dont miss the salt now. I do add salt to mashed pots though - can anyone suggest a healthy alternative?

I wouldn't like to do without salt altogether.

Broomstick

pineapple wrote: »

I know it happened but I'm a bit worried that I can't remember anything about it - maybe I need to do regression therapy . There again maybe our local area didn't suffer as much, plus we practically lived next door to the school so my own little world would not have been impacted much.

I was feeling much the same. I've just rung my mum for more information. I was at an infant school just down the road and I always walked there, and came home at lunchtime for lunch so that continued since the school apparently stayed open. Much of our market town had problems with water but the drains where we lived had been dug deep and we were not affected by water freezing, so washing clothes and bathtime etc carried on as usual. (Imagine trying to cope with laundry with a large family and collecting water!)

The little grocers shop in town continued their weekly delivery. (Veggiebox delivery is not so new ) I forgot to ask my mum about the milk deliveries and the rubbish collection. We had a coal bunker which my mum had got filled for the winter and a solid fuel stove which meant we could stay warm. I think my little world will have looked very much the same but with the added bonus of snowballs.:D

I think we had telly by then and we certainly had radio, but children's programmes were very, very limited and it was rare that I got to hear the news. I know I was aware of Beatle-mania in 1962/3 and hearing songs on the radio. I also know I remember news of the Great Train Robbery in '63 which will, no doubt, have been talked about in the playground. And I remember seeing the coverage of the Kennedy assassination on the telly that year. On the whole though we were very protected and there is no way that I would have seen reports of the snow-related problems the country was having.

I'm on my own in the house atm and I think I'm going to go and do a massive stock-take of our food cupboards. Have decided to stock up on more gas cannisters for the tabletop stove. Being able to have enough water to make hotties in the case of power cuts is a bit crucial. I really, really miss not having any kind of fireplace or solid fuel stove.

B x