Lost my Google page

I lost my Google page for some reason but its back now. I'm great at losing thing particularly on the computer. Been trying to spring clean out some of my fiiles but there are just too many of them. I've manage to spring clean my house so all that is left now is to spring clean out the loft! They are coming soon to insulate it for free as i am over 70 - get all you can I say.

Snow in 1947

Just watched the programme about the snow storm this year. It had a bit about previous storms and confirmed my memories of them particularly the 1947 storms. It was in the time of housing shortage just after the war and my dad and I couldn't find anywhere to live having been chucked out of our digs (rented rooms) for some reason. Dad had a small, old white tent and with an added ground sheet over the top which we lived in over that winter. I tell everybody that it snowed most nights for weeks (which was true) and in the morning we had to get out and sweep the snow off of the roof before we lit the paraffin stoves. If you didn't the water came through the roof. It was so cold that you woke up with hoar frost around the blankets where you had been breathing all night.

It left me with a life long fear of being homeless again.

Buses in the snow

Hearing that the buses in London didn’t run on the first day of the snow storm I thought back to when I was Clippie in the fifties. I worked on the outskirts of London and getting to the bottom of a steep hill that was covered in snow my driver made all the passengers get off the bus while he made a run at the slippery hill. Many cars at the bottom testified to it being a difficult time getting to the top.
‘OK’ I said to my driver, ‘I’ll walk and see you at the top.’
‘No you won’t, I don’t drive unless I have a conductor on the back to stop anyone getting on.’
I gritted my teeth and held on while we rushed up the hill on the double decker bus. For younger people who may be reading this we didn’t have doors on buses then and people leaped onto the open back platform while the buses were on the move. Yes it was very cold.

The second time on the buses in the snow as a clippie was in Oxford. It was a Sunday and there was a heavy snow fall early in the morning. When we got to work the garage boss came over to us before we went out and asked my driver to ‘go a little further in towards the edge of the road every time we went up and down the road.’ This was because the council had said their salt gritter staff had not come in! I will not repeat my drivers reply.

I can’t remember not going to school or work because it snowed, ever.

Obama – President at last

I hope I witness the promised change that was offered today. How do I feel about it? I am thrilled that a man of mixed race could rise to the highest office in the World! Even here in this country I can remember seeing a black man for the first time. It was in the fifties - an African Chief and his entourage. I was a shop assistant behind a Mark and Spencers counter when they came in to buy warm underwear for our cold climate. I remember how tall they were and the length of their beautifully formed hands and fingers.

In the sixties I had many friends of all colours and races. One day, walking in London with two Nigerians, a woman spat at me for being in their company. Later one of these friends paid me the compliment of saying that ‘I did not see colour’. I hope that was true and is still true.

I add my good wishes and luck to Barack Obama and trust that with his country and the whole world in his hands it will not be too heavy for him.

Last knocking of Victoriana

Watching the TV programme, Victorian Farm, I realised I came into this world just as the final dregs of Victoriana and before were leaving. Many of the things the people use on the farm and in their cottage I can remember using. On the farm they used a contraption that cut up Mangle Worzels for the cattle. You had to turn a big wheel by hand and I remember doing just that with a Land Girl. Flat Irons, blue in the wash, boiling in coppers were done every week. I didn’t ever cook on a range but we had one and I had to black lead it every week. Oil lamps of course were in regular use and candles. By the time I was 18 all had gone except the oil lamp in my father’s caravan.