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Post by jhedger on Jan 3, 2013 13:02:25 GMT
Thanks for this most interesting link! I was 5 at the time and dropped it out one lunchtime that 'poor old Dennis couldn't get his hair cut' that was it, just that. Dennis was an old man who lived down our entry. Mom popped down to see him - on a hunch and curious, because of what I had said and found his back yard frozen solid in thick ice - neighbours were called and Dennis was rescued! On top of the bad weather conditions - he had a burst pipe, that day as well - Shopping was fetched and someone cooked him a hot meal. I only know the whole story as my Mom continued to tell of my strange comment that' Dennis couldn't get his hair cut' every winter till the day she died! Jan
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Post by walt00 on Jan 3, 2013 14:03:56 GMT
I remember it well as we got Married just after the ice had melted. It lasted for ages and was treacherous to walk on. Icicles up to 4/5 foot long hanging off roof's. And we walked with our hands in pockets, but that was dangerous cos if you fell backwards which you nearly always did, You had no hands to save you, so there was a great chance of hitting your head off the floor and causing serious damage. Lots of my mates finished up with broken bones suppose i was lucky. Got Married on Satuday 27th April 1963. 50 years this April coming. And they said "It will never last" Ha Ha !!.
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Post by planetmalc on Jan 3, 2013 15:26:09 GMT
1962-63 was my first winter at work and because of the snow (and severe smog in '63), I had to walk home from Erdington to Grange Road several times. As in 1947, Muntz Street had its gutters piled around 3' high with shovelled snow for weeks on end, with gaps every 20 yards or so to allow people to cross the road. I think we took it all in our stride because bad winters were the norm in those days, so life was geared up to it. Today, people live further from their workplace than they used to, so it comes as a shock to the system when they try to use the car in our rare bad winters. The thing I remember most about the old winters was standing at bus stops with feet like blocks of ice, day after day after day.
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Post by pedro42 on Jan 3, 2013 15:52:13 GMT
1962-63 was my first winter at work and because of the snow (and severe smog in '63), I had to walk home from Erdington to Grange Road several times. As in 1947, Muntz Street had its gutters piled around 3' high with shovelled snow for weeks on end, with gaps every 20 yards or so to allow people to cross the road. I think we took it all in our stride because bad winters were the norm in those days, so life was geared up to it. Today, people live further from their workplace than they used to, so it comes as a shock to the system when they try to use the car in our rare bad winters. The thing I remember most about the old winters was standing at bus stops with feet like blocks of ice, day after day after day. My lasting memory of the winter of 1963 is that there was a standpipe outside the Nelson, at the junction of Grange road & Baker street. Children as young as 3 or 4 queued with buckets and enamelled jugs alongside their older neighbours for water. Even at my age (15), it was heartwrenching to watch them struggle home. Just you try & help them though, you'd soon get short shrift! Proud & stubborn even at that early age Pete
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Post by bernie120g on Jan 3, 2013 18:28:47 GMT
Some memories from that time in those pictures Abid so thanks for the link . Keep on writing Jan good descriptions of houses and life back then
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Post by planetmalc on Jan 4, 2013 16:38:19 GMT
Absolutely fascinating reading everyone´s memories of that particular winter. Wasn´t it Harold McMillan at around that time who said 'Britons never had it so good' Yes, he did, but as usual he was only speaking to Tories. We had two consecutive, really bitter, winters around that time (fortunately with not too much snow) and they were definitely the coldest in any of our lifetimes. I remember going to visit someone in Grimsby and, on the way home, the temperatures plummeted to well below -20C. When our train arrived in New Street we were unable to get out because our breath had condensed onto the glass of the carriage doors and run down into the recess below and frozen, preventing us from lowering the windows and opening the doors via the handles outside. We had to wait for platform staff to come & rescue us!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 18:38:25 GMT
I started work as a milk assistant with the BCS [Birmingham Co-OP Society] in January 1963.
Having no money for bus fare from Bordesley Green down to Watery Lane, I had to walk to and from work nearly every day until Mom decided I could have a few bob out of my own wage packet!
I was frozen before I started work, but the nice thing was the Milkmen, when loaded, would nearly always head for the nearest cafe, for tea and toast.
I was excited at being a 'grown-up', and working for a wage [£4.4.0 per week - clock number 434, which later changed to 4314].
Having no money to speak of, I used to get home every day, for about two weeks during that cold winter, and put my shoes in the gas oven to try and get them dry.
They did dry, and shrink, and cracked. They used to kill my feet, but had to continue using them until my first wage packet, at which I purchased a pair of footy socks and a pair of wellingtons. bliss.
That was my abiding memory of 1963.
Ray.
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Post by planetmalc on Jan 5, 2013 17:47:07 GMT
Isn´t it strange how we tend to remember times of suffering and hardship, yet hardly pay attention during halcion periods ? That's because there weren't any; merely a temporary lessening of the overall misery!
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patb
New Member
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Post by patb on Jan 6, 2013 15:22:37 GMT
I remember that winter well, we moved into our own house just before Christmas with our 8 month old son my husband was on short time but after Christmas he managed to get a night job at hawleys bakery, we had no water in the house for 3 weeks each morning on his return home he would try the bath taps to see if the water was running but the plug was froze so we finished up with about 6inches of frozen water in the bath that was eventually thrown out of the bathroom window,the nappy bucket in the kitchen also started to freeze over, with no central heating only a coal fire for warmth ,& frosty patterns all over the bedroom windows.. I often wonder how our son survived that winter. so happy with central heating now...but I suppose its not so healthy .
Pat
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