In article
,
Lawrence13 writes:
Yep boxing day 1962.Bitterly cold day and all of those old enough to
remember will recall how cold our homes were then, I've probably said
before but we lived in a large , draughty Victorian semi, with no CH,
no insulation and single glazed sash cord windows, The only source of
heat being the kitchen oven, a paraffin heater and a two bar electric
fire and blimey it was cold.

So on Boxing Day afternoon around 1pm as my mother, me and my sister
waited my dad to return from the pub in his Morris Van, so we could go
for our traditional Boxing day dinner at my nan and granddads, I sat
staring out of the kitchen window all fully clothed up. Its funny but
one of the most deeply etched memories of that day was how bitterly
cold it was and being fascinated looking at the increasingly leaden
grey sky and then getting so excited as it started to snow, To be
honest at that age of ten living London I had only ever seen a couple
of snowfalls so this was very eagerly welcomed being Christmas and
that.

When my dad finally arrived (no drink driving laws then) we drove
through the very deserted cold, snowy Boxing day streets to my
grandparents place. It was eerily quiet and those days there wasn't
many than many private car to be found. Also no shop ever opened on a
Sunday let alone Christmas day and Boxing day. It was so quiet you
could literally hear the snow fall. At my grandparents which was
the downstairs rooms of another old Victorian terraced house at the
top Lordship Lane it was also bleedin' cold, but wonderfully warm in
their lounge where they had a roaring coal fire but as their lounge
wasn't exactly spacious there was only enough chairs for the adults
and me and my sister finished up playing with some of our new
Christmas presents on that cold lino that passed for flooring in those
days., Oh how we forget how we lived, not that long ago really.

Anyhow the snow lasted a couple of hours and now with hindsight of
wetterzentral's archives you can see what took place that day, but
anyhow once the snow stopped everything really started to freeze. Just
to add hypothermia to misery my grandparents had an outside loo and I
can still picture what was slightly slushy snow now freezing hard, I
mean if you needed the toilet you couldn't help *but* notice the
bloody weather; believe me you didn't hang around too long out there.
Last memories of that day were watching the early evening ITN
television news-just two channels then, around sixish and the snow
fall was a main item. The news presenter showed either a rushed film
shot of the snow in which I believe was Kensington Park. The item
ended with the presenter saying that weather experts didn't expect the
cold snap to last that long. It's funny I can remember those events
but they are only vague memories to my sister and mother. I can't
recall if I was disappointed hearing the snow would soon be gone, but
I have no further recollections of that day and little did I know of
what was to come.

A brilliant evocation, Lawrence. Thanks for taking the trouble to write
it.
--
John Hall
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
Winston S Churchill (1874-1965)