Call The Midwife

[pastafreak]

No words necessary...

[ummmm]

Quite emotional.

[horselady]

Loved it, made me cry when the old chap was talking to his dying wife. I remember that winter I was 14 and can remember the water pipes being frozen and the deep snow drifts. Still had to go to school though.

[tonyav]

Was this about the winter of 62 / 63 ?.
What a winter that was, the snow drifts where higher than I was then.

[woofgang]

That series gets better and better...yes I was 9 that winter and I remember the snow and the way everywhere froze.

[New Judge]

Yes it first snowed on Boxing Day 1962. everybody said "Ah! What a shame! If only it had come a day earlier. We'd have had a lovely White Christmas. However, by the end of March '63 (by which time the daytime temperature across the whole country had not risen above zero degrees Centigrade - or 32 degrees Fahrenheit as it was more popularly known then) the populace was getting a little bit tired of it all.

[hellywelly4]

It was lovely wasn't it.

[maggiebee]

So good to see it back on our screens again.

[Smowball]

I wasn’t even born - what happened that winter??

[ummmm]

I wasn't born either. Looks like it snowed a lot.

[woofgang]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1962–63_in_the_United_Kingdom

[Smowball]

Ohhh that must have been the winter that Mr Smows Mum keeps mentioning...

[woofgang]

It wasn't so much the amounts of snow as the continued low temperatures that were the problem

[Smowball]

Blimey Woofgang that sounds bad!

[tonyav]

It was, except for the many days off school ( boiler frozen ect ), we had some great slides on the road out front of our house and snowball fights every day also some great igloo's built in the snow drifts.

[New Judge]

"...what happened that winter??"

I told you what happened.

The difference between then and now is that now, half an inch of snow brings the country to a halt. Schools are closed even at the threat of snow. Transport ceases to operate. In 1963 life went on., I cannot recall any schools being closed. Mine certainly was not. We were let of half an hour early once or twice if fresh snow fell, but that was about it. It was a different world.

[tonyav]

We had a few day's off, nj.

[woofgang]

Actually, it wasn't as bad as it would seem now. From what I remember (and remember I was a child) winter powercuts were more common anyway and central heating was nowhere near universal. Heating was by open fire mostly backed up by oil stoves and ice on the inside of bedroom windows wasn't unusual in any cold winter. Where there was running hot water, it was commonly a back boiler on a fire or maybe one of those little gas water heaters that heat the water as you need it. Many more people cooked with gas and even with coal fuelled range cookers so the power cuts were less disabling. Less people had cars and there was less commuting. It was bad and nasty for the old and infirm but I think that the same circumstances would seem worse today because we would all have to do without more if you know what I mean?

[ummmm]

And we don't have the same amount of local shops either.

[jennyjoan]

Did anybody notice tho - that when the singing of the Jews and others outside in the terrible snow - not one ushered a freezing breath.

[goodgoalie]

Obviously shot in the summer - as obvious as Helen (Trixie) George's pregnancy!