The Big Freeze
Just been watching a BBC documentary about the big freeze of 1963. Basically this was a repeat of a Tonight programme special shown towards the end of the freeze, fronted by Cliff Michelmore , Derek Hart and Kenneth Alsop (and with designer Ridley Scott and director Anthony Jay).
I am old enough to remember the big freeze. I was nine and a half at the time. But I was young enough then not to realise that that year was anything special. The family had moved to the north-east five years earlier, which is about when my earliest memories start. It had snowed most winters - probably every winter - since we moved, and when you're nine, a week seems as long as a month anyway. So I didn't know it was unusual for the snow to be on the ground for over two months.
And, at that age, I had none of the problems that I have with cold now. I enjoyed playing in the snow, making snowmen and snow castles. (Take a seaside plastic bucket, fill it with snow and turn it over.) I remember about ten years ago my father telling me that he'd found a photograph of me and my sisters playing in the snow probably that year. I was wearing short trousers (and I guess my sisters were wearing dresses or skirts). No nine-year old boy would wear long trousers back then. (I never found that photograph when we were clearing out my father's house. I don't know if any of my siblings have it.)
I don't even remember having problems with school. My primary school was literally at the bottom of the street, so I had no trouble getting there - one of the teachers lived next door to us - and I don't think the school was ever closed.
I do remember that my brother was less than a year old then and that my mother used to wash his nappies, put them out on the line to dry and when she brought them in, they were as stiff as boards and she had to stand them in front of the fire to thaw. (The BBC programme mentioned a shortage of disposable nappies, but we had the old washable kind.)
And I remember the disruption to sport but only peripherally. The pools panel was introduced, and my parents were keen pools players - at one time my father had a part-time job collecting for Littlewoods. Saturday afternoon's Grandstand on the BBC was replaced by old films.
I do remember clearing the snow off the pavement outside our house and realising that it was coming up in big frozen slabs on which the lines in the paving stones were imprinted.
And I remember a few months later, the weather had become warm enough that the teacher had decided to take us outside for a lesson in the sunshine. I was sitting on the grass and looking at it and remembering how this had all been deep under snow.
I am old enough to remember the big freeze. I was nine and a half at the time. But I was young enough then not to realise that that year was anything special. The family had moved to the north-east five years earlier, which is about when my earliest memories start. It had snowed most winters - probably every winter - since we moved, and when you're nine, a week seems as long as a month anyway. So I didn't know it was unusual for the snow to be on the ground for over two months.
And, at that age, I had none of the problems that I have with cold now. I enjoyed playing in the snow, making snowmen and snow castles. (Take a seaside plastic bucket, fill it with snow and turn it over.) I remember about ten years ago my father telling me that he'd found a photograph of me and my sisters playing in the snow probably that year. I was wearing short trousers (and I guess my sisters were wearing dresses or skirts). No nine-year old boy would wear long trousers back then. (I never found that photograph when we were clearing out my father's house. I don't know if any of my siblings have it.)
I don't even remember having problems with school. My primary school was literally at the bottom of the street, so I had no trouble getting there - one of the teachers lived next door to us - and I don't think the school was ever closed.
I do remember that my brother was less than a year old then and that my mother used to wash his nappies, put them out on the line to dry and when she brought them in, they were as stiff as boards and she had to stand them in front of the fire to thaw. (The BBC programme mentioned a shortage of disposable nappies, but we had the old washable kind.)
And I remember the disruption to sport but only peripherally. The pools panel was introduced, and my parents were keen pools players - at one time my father had a part-time job collecting for Littlewoods. Saturday afternoon's Grandstand on the BBC was replaced by old films.
I do remember clearing the snow off the pavement outside our house and realising that it was coming up in big frozen slabs on which the lines in the paving stones were imprinted.
And I remember a few months later, the weather had become warm enough that the teacher had decided to take us outside for a lesson in the sunshine. I was sitting on the grass and looking at it and remembering how this had all been deep under snow.