"Alan White" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:07:45 -0000, "MichaelJP" wrote:

Different world indeed.. don't think anyone who has lived through a really
severe winter like that would be an internet cold weather fan. In fact I
think many of those fans would soon tire of it after a few weeks of chaos,
especially if gas and electricity were cut off.

My recollection of 1947 is that we just got on with it but that's the
perception of a nine year old. Our only source of heating was a coal
fire and I do remember that the second thing my mother did every morning
was to light it. The first thing was to prepare my father's breakfast
and to see him off to work. Gas and electricity weren't affected in our
area (NW Surrey) so weren't a problem but the coal shortage probably
was. Bear in mind that this was only eighteen months after the end of
the war and that for many it was just something else to be endured.
Also, we weren't dependant on a high tech infrastructure for survival
because there wasn't one. I suspect that if a winter like '47 were to
happen now the 'system' would collapse quite quickly and that many
wouldn't be able to cope. Cue a television series?

--
Alan White
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in
Argyll, Scotland.

Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.gt-britain.co.uk/weather

My dad was 11 at the time and remembers being on the bus home from school
(near Bridgend, S. Wales) and the driver being unwilling to descend an
ice-bound hill. They all got off the bus and had to walk 4 miles home on
country roads without an adult through a raging blizzard. Can you imagine
the fuss now!

I think the whole just-in-time delivery system for supermarkets would be our
Achilles heel. Look at the panic buying after only a few days of the petrol
dispute and you could see how it would develop. It doesn't even have to be
an actual shortage, only the idea of one that would cause chaos.

The interesting thing to see would be whether there would be a "Blitz
spirit" or has community and society lost all those local links that bound
people together.