Call This Snow?

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

I want to drive a steam snow plough when I grow up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=cl4pJwcE7JI

how the railways coped in 1963

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

[grannyjanny]

Those were the days. Obviously not the wrong sort of snow ;D. Just showed it to OH & he has it on DVD & was watching it the other day. So glad I am a gardener. 8).
Janet.

[Larkshall]

I was "driving" a snow plough in 1963, more correctly, I was driving one of two tractors pulling a snow plough. Because of the underlying ice, we had two tractors connected by a steel cable. If one could not get a grip the other could, it kept us going when others were off the road. We had to keep the village road open for the heart specialist at Papworth Hospital. The snow started on Boxing day 1962 and finally cleared at the end of March 1963. We were working on the roads for 28 days of 31 in January.

As an aside: We were working our way from Knapwell to Conington, and it was B***** cold (we had three top coats on, no cabs those days). I said to the others "When we get to the White Swan we'll have a warm up". When we got there, there were three sticks in the fireplace keeping each other warm. It's a lot better now (different management).

[ACE]

I was home on xmas leave. I had a telegram teling me not to try and get back to my ship until I was certain I could make it. This was 2 days after xmas, I did not get back until march as I waited until the snowman on the front lawn had completey melted. I only had to get a ferry to Pompey, but I told them my village was cut off.

Clever wasn't I? No. As my ship was now docked in Sunny Malta and all my mates living it up down the 'Gut' they signed me on another doing the Artic patrol, so another 3 months of ice and snow. Now that's what you call snow.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

the poor b*ggers with the shovels didn't even have gloves on

[tim]

Just deserve, Ace?? The last time we were in Cowes, after a race in the 60s, it was a balmy November day. Sunbathing!

We might have met on the Arctic convoys had it not been so dark! What ship?

You've seen this before - [attachment=1]

And this - [attachment=2]

[thifasmom]

that was a sweet video award winning also i see.

now a days i dont think they will get the workers to do that sort of job :-\

[Jeannine]

OOh that was fun. I remember digging my tiny Fiat out from under the snow then driving the fifty yards to the cleared main road on the pavement to get out one day leaving behind all the bigger cars.

Those poor men clearing that track.. no warm Parka or gloves and wellies!! Wellies are freezing cold in snow.

Bet they would have a job getting the workers today.

Nice clip, thank you

XX Jeannine

[Carol]

That was a good video, must pass it on to OH.  The snow started up here on Christmas Eve and didn't leave us or March.  I remember coming out of the Pictures with the snow coming on.  Those were the days when everyone did their utmost to get to work.  I remember my Dad putting chains on his car tyres so he could get to work.  No days at home, no work, no pay. 

[lorna]

Great video. That was the year we bought our first greengrocers.  If I remember rightly the snow started on Boxing Day few days before we moved in to the shop. The sweet old dears would ask "Are the cabbages frozen?" (no dear we warmed them up for you :))

[hopalong]

Nostalgia!  Really enjoyed this video, for the trains almost as much as the snow. I moved from East Anglia to Northumberland late in 1962 and, as a naive 14-year old, initially thought the weather that winter was what it was always like up North. My mum and sister and I went tobogganing by moonlight.  People had raging cold fires all that winter; and they kept them going all summer too. We lived in a former pit village and heating your house with coal or coal products was an article of faith.

[glosterwomble]

Fab video! I'd love to know where it was filmed. I agree with what others have said, why do we grind to a halt these days with an inch of snowfall. Yesterday it had snowed here (Gloucester) all the roads were clear but everthing had stopped, all schools closed etc. The problem around here is they have almost run out of salt for the roads!!!!!  ::)

[tonybloke]

the problem is that every one HAS TO travel!! when I was a lad, the village school was where all the kids in the village went, and guess what? the headmaster lived there, and the teachers lived next door! every one at the school walked there! non of this namby pamby getting mum / dad to drop the little darlings off to a school that's less than a mile away!!!, we also had a village bakery, dairy, butchers, etc. did not need daily deliveries from the other side of the country.

[Sinbad7]

Great video but what sprang to mind, when watching it, was that 1963 becomes 'the good old days' ;D ;D ;D