Oh, happy days....(not)
Yes, I remember the winter of 1947/8 in Sussex when as a 4 yr old I was surprised to find snow falling inside my small wellington boots; I also now have my young mother's diary about trying to keep me and my younger sister warm, with electricity cut off for much of every day, no other fuel of any sort. And both my parents worked at Bletchley Park while I was a baby, and had to put up with terrible conditions and blackouts and no heating and restricted food (they fed me with their weekly egg, and apparently I used to spit it out, to their chagrin).
Fast forward to living in Fife/Scotland the next year and onwards without central heating and learning to skate on local ponds every winter. Cycling to school without gloves and having to soak hands in hot water before being able to write. Ink frozen in the ink wells (remember them? I was an Ink Monitor, supposed to fill them up each day and fish out soggy blotting paper). Outside lavatories at school, very cold, little privacy.
Fast forward again as a student in London in early 60s, each year taking a bus through snow drifts from Fife/Edinborough, journey a freezing 15 hours overnight. Not allowed by my college to wear trousers! Had to sneak in to RAM past the Lady Supervisor's office, wearing them. Freezing student digs, used to lie in bed to keep warm, reading music scores, until c11am when landlady might turn the heating on.....
The last London smogs, when you could lose your way crossing the road.....
As a young mother myself during the '70s miners' strikes, keeping hot water in thermos to feed my babies with and lighting stored candles to keep room above freezing. Frantic phone calls from London friends because they were being mugged for candles!
Driving to and from Morven on roads made of frozen snow, totally routine exercise.
Bread strike - when was that? Those of us who had stores of yeast and flour were OK (have always made own bread). A chemist friend used his lab to make yeast. (We didn't know then about sour dough).
I know this sounds like the "lived in a shoebox and had to lick the motorway clean every day" skit....what am I referring to? Also George Orwell's books......But it was true for many of us in those years, wasn't it? We were resourceful and inventive.
