Quizzes & Puzzles4 mins ago
Winter Of 1947
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Did anyone see this on TV last night. Dare say its a repeat, but its the first time I've seen it. Its normally a repeat of the sixties winter. Thats what you call a real hard time, worth watching if you've not seen it.
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" Oh, and the part that made me laugh was they fixed to jet engines on a rolling trolly on the railtrack, fired them up to melt the snow and ice,"
During the 63 winter we had to keep our runways open for the V bomber squadrons. One bright spark came up with the idea of strapping a jet engine vertically to a cradle and melt all the snow. It worked, until the ice refroze, we had the longest skating rink in Warwickshire.
Having seen the programme a while back I was fascinated and wished I could have asked my mother about it all. I was born at 1.50 in the morning in February 1947. I was born in the bedroom at home. We had no heating apart from a coal fire downstairs and only gas lighting downstairs so how the poor woman coped I don't know. I was actually named after the midwife and never liked my name but can understand why now.
As far as 1963 goes, I was doing my mock 'O' levels at the time. One of our school buildings had been demolished to make way for a new one and we were in temporary wooden huts with no heating, all wearing coats, scarves and gloves. I don't know how we managed to write!!! I had a six mile bus journey to school but the bus never stopped running and the school never closed. We were much hardier people in those days and, on looking back, I'll always be glad I was born when I was!!!!
I wasn't around then. I was born the following year. I was one of the first NHS babies, doncher no? Anyway, the winter of 1947 was one reason why the USA, under the Marshall Plan, allocated more money to Germany than was originally planned, and diverted some of it from Britains' share. So we didn't get as much as we should have. Or is it shud of? 😄
I remember a guy I worked with in the 1960's telling me that one time in the winter of 1947, in A-U-L where he lived, he'd just been to the local coal merchants and put a sack of coal on a baby trolley, pushed it out of the yard onto the road and was walking slowly with it, holding all the traffic up. He couldn't get on the pavement with it because the snow was piled too high. A copper came up to him and yelled at him to get that pram on the pavement! Tommy turned to the copper and, in deepest Lancashire accent, shouted back: "Can thy get it ont f****** pavement?!" I often chuckle about that. Harsh realities!
What channel was it on, i would love to see it.
I was born 20 minutes past midnight on January 1st 1948, I missed being born in 1947 by 20 minutes!
My parents often recalled that bad winter, I left school in December 1962 and I well remember the bad winter of 1963, my first job as an apprentice chef was clearing snow away from the shop front!!
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"I was actually named after the midwife..."
Kustard's a very strange name for a midwife! 😀
"We only had electricity in the living room, no running water ,just the well in the farmyard and that froze over. Melting snow and ice in a bucket on the coal fire was the only way to get warm water."
Here we go then, Can't resist it:
I'll never forget that first day at the pit.
Me an' me father worked a 72-hour shift. Then we walked home, 43 miles through t'snow, in us bare feet, huddled inside us clothes made out of old sacks.
Eventually, we trudged over t'hill until we could see the streetlight twinklin' in our village.
Me father smiled down at me through icicles hangin' off his nose. "Nearly home now lad, " he said.
We stumbled into t'house and stood there freezin' cold and tired out, shiverin' and miserable, in front of the meagre fire.
"Any road", me mum says "Cheer up, lads I've got you some nice brown bread and butter for your tea"
"Ee" - me father went crackers.
He reached out and gently pulled me mum towards him be t'throat.
"You big fat, idle ugly wart, " he said. "You great useless spawny-eyed parrot-faced wazzock"
He had a way with words, me father. He'd been to college, you know.
"You've been out playin' bingo all t'afternoon instead of gettin'
some proper snap ready for me an' this lad" He explained to me poor, little, purple-faced mum
Then turnin' to me he said "Arthur?" (He could never remember me name) "Here's half a crown. Nip down to t'chip 'oyl an' get us a nice piece o' 'addock for us tea. Man cannot live by bread alone"
He were a reyt tater, me father
He said, "Us 'ow workin' folk should have some dignity an' pride an' self-respect. And as 'ow they should come home to summat warm an' cheerful"
An' then he threw me mum on t'fire
We didn't have no tellies or shoes or bedclothes.We made us own fun in them days.
Do you know, when I were a lad you could get a tram down into the town, buy three new suits an' an ovvercoat, four pair o' good boots, go an' see George Formby at the Palace Theatre, get blind drunk, 'ave some steak an' chips, bunch o' bananas
and three stone o' monkey nuts. An' still 'ave change out of a farthing?
We'd lots o' things in them days they haven't got today:
Rickets, diptheria, Hitler and my, we did look well goin' to school with no backside in us trousers an' all us little 'eads painted purple because we 'ad ringworm.
They don't know they're born today. 🤣🤣
