Snow Joke ...

According to a piece in the paper yesterday, nearly one third of parents feel it is "too dangerous" to let their children play in the snow in case they slip or are hit by a snowball.  One in five parents actually ban their children from building snowmen or taking part in snowball fights "in case they catch a cold" and keep them wrapped up warm indoors.

Makes me wonder how we ever managed to win a war ...

-o-

In a similar vein, just to put their ridiculousness into some sort of context, fifty years ago this country suffered the 'Big Freeze' one of the coldest winters on record.  It started on Boxing Day 1962 with a blizzard that was whipped up by bitingly cold East winds a couple of days later leaving drifts up to twenty foot high in many places and even the centres of big cities had up to six inches of snow.  This was followed in the January by temperatures well below freezing - I believe as low as almost -20c in some places.  The upper reaches of the Thames here in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire froze solid, and even as far down as Windsor people were able to skate on it.  In some places even the sea froze for almost a mile off shore.  Without the benefit of modern 4x4 vehicles etc., farmers struggled to feed, or even rescue, livestock and many, many thousands died of exposure and/or starvation.  Added to the problems underfoot, all the lying snow gave rise to almost daily fog.
A thaw came towards the end of January but, within a couple of days, the snow was back again with a huge blizzard that lasted for almost two days, again leaving drifts of up to twenty foot.  This time, the winds remained, so it was a constant battle against swirling snow in sub-zero temperatures.  And all this during a time when few houses had decent central heating (if they had any at all, and most didn't!), road gritting wasn't commonplace, communications links were reliant on overhead telephone wires - many of which were brought down - and besides, many households didn't even have a telephone, electricity lines were also mostly overhead and, again, many were brought down leaving entire communities without power and lighting for considerable periods of time.   And people coped.  They also coped with the huge floods that followed in early March when the temperatures did a quick reversal and soared to the mid-teens!

From the top: Wales, Kent, the Thames at Windsor, and Somerset.  Now THAT is bad winter.  And an entire generation of children came through it largely unscathed.  FFS.