'Up North' we're more used to the white stuff. We always say it's an
'overcoat warmer' down south! Jean says about the grit boxes. We
still have them up here.... the problem is, they're all empty! The
council are concentrating on keeping the roads open rather than
filling the bins. We used to get our amenity sweeper to grit the
paths on the way to school, but, thanks to the 'sue mentality' it's no
longer done. The bins these days, are there for the street corners,
and footpath corners where ice is bad because the sun doesn't reach
it, not for private drives, but when they're empty, that's 'your lot,
kid'!!
Of course the other problem with the good old UK is that, because we
don't see this white stuff in this quantity very often, people do not
learn how to drive in it, walk in it, schools close because teachers
no longer live in the area they work, and woe betide the schools if
they do not meet the government criteria of pupil to teaching staff
ratio! Common sense has flown out of the window.... why not get
teachers who do live close to a school, even if it's not their school,
to go in and help out?? There wouldn't be all the panic about the
kids who are taking exams next week, because there would be
'invigilators' to be with them! or do we not trust the teachers either??
As a School Crossing Patrol, I usually walk to work, now my only
problem with that.... and yes, the schools are still open in I dread
to think how many inches of snow... is that my feet do not stay warm
in welly boots, not even with 3 pairs of socks on (thermal ones at
that). It's not the walking, it's the standing around when I get
there! the post is still being delivered, and it used to be the case
in the Post Office, that if you lived further than walking distance
from your office, it was your fault and you could not used bad weather
as an excuse for not turning up! There was no excuse for not
delivering the mail unless the village was cut off completely by
snow!, and frequently my father (who worked in the post office,
working his way up to sub postmaster from telegraph boy) would take
milk and bread for those pensioners he knew could not get out!
At the moment, you can walk out of the cottages, and we could probably
get the cars out in a dire emergency, but we're walking instead!
Later I'm going to walk up and see Agnes, have a coffee and a natter,
and then walk back home!
We probably rely on our wheels too much, and live too far away from
our place of work as a consequence.
Sue in a white over East Yorkshire, signing off her soap box!!
On 9 Jan 2010, at 08:39, Jean Nathan wrote:
Brilliant photo if you're not stuck in it. Trouble is, we're just
not used to this kind of weather hitting the whole of the country -
it happens so rarely. So we're not prepared for it, haven't got the
equipment to cope with it and everything grinds to a halt. There
used to be bins of grit beside the road where you could go and get a
bucket full to spread on your driveway (if you have one) and the
pavement outside your house, but I haven't seen one for years.
People also used to clear the snow off the pavement outside their
house, but that doesn't happen any more. Could be that if you don't
quite clear it and someone slips on a patch of ice that you've left,
you could get sued; if you leave it alone then you've done nothing
that could cause an accident. We now live in a "blame" culture.
When we lived in Somerset, we were regularly snowed in until a local
farmer with a snow plough on his tractor cleared the lane outside
out house. We could get about on foot even before the lane was
cleared because there was always undisturbed snow to walk in as the
population was sparse and we were both younger and I was fitter. I
always kept a couple of weeks worth of essentials.
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