Preparing for Winter V

[Deleted User]

1963 is the winter that I remember, I was 15 and we all walked to school. We had one pair of shoes each, no boots or wellies and our feet were soaked and frozen when we got to school, the snow was deep and there was an awful lot of it. I was in grammar school and we didn`t have cosy teachers and fires in classrooms so most of us walked around in our sodden shoes and socks all day, then we had to walk all the way home and next morning our shoes were still damp and they had to go back on for the whole exercise to be repeated day after day

The outside toilet froze several times and if we managed to warm the backs of our legs in front of the one fire, then it was doubly hard to leave that spot, to do homework in another room. Most people had burst pipes that winter. We went to bed fully dressed and we had ex army blankets on top with a coat on top of that

dianasnan

Yes Kittie 1963 was bad. I also remember walking to school as a young'un and having the piles of cleared snow come up to my shoulder .I managed to make an sizeable igloo by cutting blocks of snow in the back garden.

I can also recall having to put a sleeping bag inside my sheets, having a long flannelette nightie, bed socks and several hot water bottles to try to keep warm whilst there was ice on the bedroom windows. No central heating yet. My cat would usually snuggle right into the bed to try to stay warm. I always used to think that she would suffocate.

Lucy5781

dianasnan wrote: »

....1963 was bad. ... to try to keep warm whilst there was ice on the bedroom windows. No central heating yet.

My Mum always talks about the ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, she was 13 in 1963.

[Deleted User]

Lucy5781 wrote: »

My Mum always talks about the ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, she was 13 in 1963.

oh yes I forgot about the ice inside the windows, no insulation in those freezing cold houses. Strange thing is that me and my 6 younger siblings are very healthy, still

notjustlaura

Lucy5781 wrote: »

My Mum always talks about the ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, she was 13 in 1963.

I can remember ice on the inside of my bedroom window in the 1970s ...

nicki_2

I remember the winter of 1995/96 (I was 16/17 at the time and not long started 6th form), there was 3 or 4 inches of snow. I walked the mile or so to school in my lace up knee high boots, calf length denim skirt, 2 pairs of 80 denier tights and socks, a poloneck top, a jumper, a thick scarf, a hat, gloves and coat, with my bag of school books only to find a note on the door saying school was closed. I turned round to walk back and this idiot (to put it politely) went through a slushy puddle and soaked me head to toe through every layer, right down to my underwear! I walked home soaked to the skin, freezing cold and fuming as I'd never been that cold up to then or since and that included the time a year or so earlier when it had snowed and some male friends thought it would be funny when we were having a snowball fight to rugby tackle me and shove as much snow up my school skirt as possible. :eek:

notjustlaura

My winter prep has started.

I've made a list (and checked it twice although I'm not sure if I'm naughty or nice!) It's food, medication and toiletry oriented for me and Willie Wonka. I've found some of the things already in the house so they've gone into a crate which can be tucked away in the study (which is closed for the winter to save on heating). Those items I don't already have can be bought or borrowed gradually over the next few weeks.

I've also had a look at the winter prepping checklist and will try to tick off the things there that are relevant to me a few each week.

This doesn't sound like much but I'm feeling inordinately pleased with myself - winter won't catch me on the hop with no heating and a Mr S delivery unable to reach me this time

toozie_2

Maybe it's a good idea to reminisce about past winters, by airing our memories and how we coped, we might stop the demon long period of snow falling in 2015/16!!

I was brought up on a farm, in a lonely area down a long farm lane, dad milked cows and sold the milk to the then Milk Marketing Board, a small tanker collected the milk daily. In the late 60's or about 1970 we had bad...bad snow, the tanker came onto the lane, the driver couldn't see what was lane & what was ditch...drove into the ditch and turned the tanker on it's side in the lane..blocking the lane from left to right! It continued to snow heavily for the rest of the day the only thing that could drag said tanker out was a huge tractor on a neighboring farm -which was already tied up doing something similar somewhere else.
We were trapped on the farm for a few days-as it was too far & dangerous to walk anywhere!
At least we had milk!

Bu the way the tanker driver was fine, and unhurt, more worried about his job then anything my mum said.

[Deleted User]

In 1977/8 I had to get urgent prescription medicine for our 9 month baby who suddenly developed bronchiolitis. I drove very cautiously along a narrow village lane, very deep snow that had been cleared just enough for a single track for a car. On a blind bend I met a lorry and he couldn`t stop, I did but he just slid into my cortina. My car was a right off. I was only shaken but since then I have been so wary about driving in the snow and ice. I never go out if I don`t have to. I was amazingly lucky. I have the greatest respect for winter conditions and that includes not wanting to break any bones

I think it was that winter when my husband and I got the real flu, with 3 small children. We sat so close to the parkray fire, we were freezing and couldn`t put one foot in front of another. Horrible and a million times worse than even a bad cold

julsifer

You guys are making me nervous i only remember 2010 winter which was pretty bad around here everyone stopped using their cars and milk and bread was just nowhere to be seen in the shops. I've just realised I'm more prepared for Xmas than winter. This year is the first winter I've got my own car to worry about which gets parked all night in a public car park as OH has the residential parking space at the back of the house (lucky him) and its also going to be my first time being a mummy I haven't even thought about stocking up on medicines and I have only a couple of candles in the house which wont be very good in case of a power cut, no torches what am I doing...oh my god I'm panicking!