G'day listers,
My Wilkinsons came from Dungannon and I have just been reading Viola's
lovely report of the Fermanagh Blizzard of Jan 1947,
<http://cotyroneireland.com/misc/snow1947.html> and well can I remember
that winter! I lived in Belfast at the time and enjoyed tobogganing in
the deep snow of that winter. Father was works manager of Patrick &
Wilkinson, Engineers, Belfast, and was able to secure steel runners for
our sled; steel for such frivolities being rare after the war!
By January '47 the path to our front door was covered with a solid layer
of ice (compacted snow) and I was instructed by my father to 'clear the
gangway' after school (his father being a marine engineer). It was hard
going for a young lad barely half Viola's age at that time and when
father arrived home, I complained how difficult it was to shovel the ice
off the slate flags (paving). "Why not cut it up into blocks and build
yourself an igloo?" he suggested. I asked what an igloo was and he
sketched the essentials. I built that igloo which, like Viola's snowmen,
remained long after the snow had melted and was still there come Easter.
'Twas a cold winter to be sure an' all.
We couldn't get to Australia quickly enough and arrived here a year later!
Cheers, Gordon
--
_________________________________
Nereda & Gordon Wilkinson, Hyde Park, South Australia.
Web: www.ozemail.com.au/~neredon Skype id: neredon
Emails: [email protected] [email protected]
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