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.

The Downturn, future generations will have to pay

I have heard it said lately and repeatedly on TV and Radio that ‘We will be paying for this economic downturn, recession/depression for generations to come’. It came back to me that my father said exactly the same to me just after the World War II only we would paying for the war. And we did, for many years. I only began to see any prosperity in the late sixties and early seventies. I even had a go at having it myself. Like all good things, for me, it soon came to an end.

So where do we stand with this banking and economic debacle, we the common people, the ordinary people? Personally I think we are in dire trouble. Oddly I think the older generation will handle it better than the young. They remember how to make-do and mend, they know how to cook and sew, things almost unknown to most of those below 30 or even 40. They also know how to budget and shop with care although even we have fallen foul of being tempted into credit card debt. (Count me in on that on that one.)

I feel sorry for the young because they will feel badly let down. Born to expect to have ‘things’ of every kind from TVs to takeaways, X-boxes to throw away clothes and computers to take the strain out of learning. They will turn very nasty about it and who will suffer. The thing to do is easy to attack old folk. A headline screamed at me in town today ‘Two yobs rob old lady’. Frightened? Yes I have to admit I am although I know it is a minority and there are lots of respectable hard working youths out there.

But the future is going to be different. Why? Because they do not really know what a real recession is. I was born during one and experienced being deprived of most things that made life worthwhile during the war and for some years after. I remember only a tin of baked beans in the cupboard and one pair of shoes to wear, and those mended by dad with old rubber tyres. Freezing cold rooms to sleep in and for dad and I, living in a tent in mid winter. And my experience was not that bad compared to some people’s. They talk about the recession of the 80s, 90s but although we lost two businesses in them it wasn’t that bad.

So am I a Cassandra? Do I foresee dire times ahead. Who in my generation ever thought to see Woolworths sink without a trace? Well my advice is draw in your horns, tighten belts and husband your resources both financial and in kind. When this mad reduction in prices passes goods will become scarce and expensive. With luck the world may come through it in 4 or 5 years but it could take ten.

Hell, I hope I am wrong about all this. My New Year message is sad and frightening, I am sorry but it is how I feel and I do not look forward to 2009 – 10 – 11…., my latter years.

Christmas trees remembered

Better write something Christmassy. Looking at Christmas trees for sale it reminded me of a time just after the war ended. Scarcity was the name of the game especially, for us, of money. We lived in an area of Scots pine and silver birch trees so dad and I went out and , do no do this, pulled up a self-seeded seedling pine tree. It stood about a foot high. We potted it up in something, I can’t remember what, and decorated it with coloured wools and sweet wrappers.

During the war decorations were hard to come by and I remember we found loads of silver foil the Germans dropped to try and fool the radar. I seem to remember we children called it radar but I may be wrong about that. Anyway everybody brought it home and decorated our Christmas trees with the strips. We all went around saying
‘Nice of the Germans to give us our tree decorations’.