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.
Friday 27 February 2009
Wednesday 4 February 2009
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.
‘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.
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