Favourite snowy memories
 

Apparently this is the worst snow for almost 100 years, but i certainly remember some good ones that almost compared.

One of my favourites - I was in sixth form at Paddock and only the Ossy girls made it into school, along with a handful of teachers. Instead of having classes we had a massive snowball fight against the teachers. Even the most strict teachers (Mr Uren in particular) joined in. It was great fun.

A slightly more hairy one - I was working in Blackburn and I would guess I was around about 25 yrs old. The snow came down so my boss decided to shut up shop. The only bus going remotely in the direction of Ossy was the Accrington bus, all others had stopped. It took about two hours to get from Blackburn to Church and at that point I got out and walked.

What are your best snow stories?

Re: Favourite snowy memories
 

Twenty of us having a meal in an Italian in Liverpool, in my last year at college, to celebrate my 21st birthday.

Coming out and finding it had snowed heavily whilst we'd been inside, and having a great time in the grounds of the Anglican cathedral throwing snowballs at the still kerb-crawling punters, sliding up and down Gambier Terrace.

:D

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Least favourite snowy memories.

Getting the bus from Stanhill to go to Blackburn college, when l was doing art foundation.

Bit of sleet in the air when I set off.

Set off wearing an old raincoat, with a Star of David painted on the back. Vintage pre-war pyjamas, and espadrilles on my feet.

By the time we got to the Boulevard the snow was heavy on the ground.

I did make it to college, though my feet were bare, except for two bits of canvas, and two twenty foot trails of disintegrating rope soles trailing behind.

Happy days.

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Actually, now I think about it, that hairy bus ride home was from college, when I was doing my foundation year.

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Other snowy memories.

We didn't waste time building boring snowmen, our dad had us building igloos. Some of which we slept in, and they lasted for weeks and weeks after the snow had gone.

The only drawback was that the blocks were cut from massive snowballs, rolled in the fields backing onto the garden. So are igloos were streaked khaki, because of all the cow muck they were made with.

:D

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The excitement of being given a sledge on Christmas day when I was 6 or 7, and being able to use it on Christmas day.

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one that really stands out,was sledging down dowry st from addison st, going really fast n a dray wagon came from the st johns pub going to great eastern, luckily it was only going slowly, due to the short distance, just closed me eyes n went right under it n out the other side n continued down dowry st.:D ya don't get much luckier n that i reckon.:)

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making ice lollies on the back bedroom windowsill......that was inside the house.
It was the only time when we were little that we had ice lollies.

Using a tin tray to slide down Riley's hill in the snow....my brothers commandeered the two sledges....the tin tray was faster anyway.

Sometime in the late seventies......I remember getting the Ribble bus to Blackburn and it not being able to get up the other side of the papermill brew in Rishton.......I walked the rest of the way to Queen's Park......that wasn't exactly a favourite memory, but it was memorable.

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Cant think this is the heaviest snow in a 100 years, when I was young, (no Neil and cashy I'm not that old) nearly every year the snow used to drift in Monarch street always down the line of the kerb outside our house, this drift was always about 4 or 5 feet deep, can't remember seeing it so bad for many a year, just for interest Gayle whats it like in Monarch Street today

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Monarch St is fairly bad. As are most of the roads down here - the gritter isn't likely to get down here.

Here are a few pics from this afternoon. Hoping to create some new snowy memories for Madz and Zack. :D

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1947 - sledging down Oswald St, across Washington St - actually want under a lorry. Snow houses built in the snow banks where people had cleared the pavements. My own Granny ruined it - she lived across the road and put ashes across the sledge run - the sledge stopped I didn't and went all the way down on my belly. Sledging down the face of the Coppice - absolute nutters, but did we have fun

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My favorite snowy memory ... mmmm, let me think:confused: ... lots of them over here;) But one thing that stands out is my first experience of a Chinook. I was living in the village of Kincaid, Sask., and one night, the temps dipped close to -50 with the wind chill. Overnight and the next morning, a Chinook blew in, and by the next afternoon there were small rivers flowing down Main Street as the temps shot up to + 10. Never seen so much snow and ice vanish so quickly.

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Pleased you told that story Cashy ... seem to remember someone wasn't that lucky down Dowry Street, and cracked his skull... whoops sorry ... supposed to be happy memories.

Well, my daughter has just walked the 3 mile into work today and son decided that for once the elements had beaten him cycling to work .. so walked/ran the six miles home. Proud of 'em .. not all will be beaten, as you were not Margaret.

Eeew yeh ... those ashes certainly halted the run didn't they ..:D I did the Coppice run too, and still have a spell embedded in my hand after grabbing a tree 'cause I was going too fast.. :)

I have just normal good memories of snow. Sledging down Dowry Street .. although didn't have one of my own .. had to wait until my best mate would allow me a 'turn'.

We do not appear to have had any drifts for years (no wind) .. loved jumping over those. Don't see kids making slides any more (Health and Safety ?) ... even in Peel Park yard remember the queue for these ... long strip of ice ... great. Snowballing was great, until some idiot decided to put a stone in the middle of it ... yobs of the 50's I guess.

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Remember going to Ronnie Mulhollands (landlord of The Royal) birthday do.......left about 6.00 am to go home and get ready for work, slipped on some ice and ended up with a cracking black eye, no one believed me at work I told them how I got the black eye........happy days :D

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my sister deciding a 19 year old can still use the sledge that she had when she was a kid and but it would be a good idea to get baby sis to test the sledge out first into a snowdrift about 6ft deep .. the sledge sunk .. and big sis saying come on jen get out of there you have to drag it back home yet .. the hill she took me to is now under the 'highway in the sky' .... she also swiped some of mums bin bags .. we dumped the sledge at the bottom of the shales - and went up to the top of the shales and slid down that .... in the bin bags .. which ripped .. shales is not called shales for nothing .. jaysay will vouch for me there ... and ripped my jeans ... good job sis was going back to manchester polytechnic that night .. she didnt get the earache ..

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I remember the ice slides ... we used to make them in the playground at All Saints .... oh, and screw health and safety; childhood is more important.:mosher:

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I remember those Peel Park Playground ice slides........and getting into trouble for 'polishing' the ice with my school beret.......Mrs Shaw went nuts and wrote a letter to Ma and I got it in the neck twice for that.

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Thought you'd have taken one of Neil feeding the goats Gayle:D

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100% Jen 100%:mosher:

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when i was small me and my brother went down the plantaison and slid dow the brook banks and then we went home and got played hell off our mother

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Remembering back to my school days, and thinking what happens today, there are over 30 schools closed in Lancs, but back i the fifties and sixties can't remember any schools closing and not to many kids were missing either, nor teachers. Mind you in those days there was no school run, maybe its because parents can't get their 4 x 4s out of the garages:rolleyes::D

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You and me alike Mallard:D

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The schools never closed due to snow when I was there either.

At QEGS the teachers lived as far away as the coast, but made it in.

At Moor End the majority of teachers lived outside of Hyndburn, and again made it in. As did the kids, who just got wrapped up, donned their Wellies, and trudged to school through the snow.

The heating once broke down at Moor End, but they didn't close.

They just packed the whole school into the hall, and we did country dancing to stay warm.

:D

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i cannot remember school ever being closed, at st.johns can remember us being told "Keep yer coats on,the heatings not working" the kids today are being made into wimps by the health n safety geezers, whilst its a great act, like owt else gone to far. IMHO.:rolleyes:

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1990, me and Tinks 'sledging' down the banking at the side of Pioneer working mens club on bin bags....oh how we laughed :D

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So whose fault is it that were closed today?

I blame the staff for not getting in - then again they don't give them the chance to even try. Some schools announced closure last night.

Why are the school staff not spending the day clearing the snow ready for tomorrow? After all we are paying them for sitting on their butts at home.

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This health and safety garbage is a crock ... humans have succeeded because they take risks knowing that failure is always an option. They gave us health and safety and they stole childhood ... or at least they took the fun out of it ... doesn't sound like a good deal to me:mad:

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Health and safety is what stops us losing limbs and work or worse not going home again to our families.

Its just gone to far.

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All Saints School in Clayton have never closed in the past, but they had three classrooms flooded, the electricals were affected by water and soome of the classroom ceilings collapsed........that was why they closed.......they were working very hard this afternoon to try to get the school fit to open on Friday for some of the pupils....but there are no guarantees that this will happen.

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I agree it's gone too far ... workplace safety legislation is necessary, because the tory supporting bastards who run the factories don't give a damn about the workers, and will tolerate unsafe conditions in order to save a buck (this one for Jaysay;):D). But it definitely has gone way too far .... there are things, like playing in snow and sliding on ice, which can be dangerous for kids ... well, to the extent that they can break an arm or a leg. But having fun while taking risks is part of the process of growing up. If I had young kids, I would be much happier to see them going out to play in the snow, than to watch them sitting in front of a screen playing snowboarding games on their PS3s.

Which reminds me ... I once slid into a wall in the playground at All Sinners coming off an ice slide ... broke my nose .... got sent home ... my mom said I was a daft ******, took my bloodstained shirt, gave me a clean one, and sent me back out to play.:mosher:

Years ago, I was working in the north Saskatchewan community of Ile-a-la-Crosse. I had flown over to Lac LaRonge for a meeting, and was returning home. As we circled the lake waiting for the snowplow to clear a place for us to land on the ice, we saw the plow go through the ice ... no landing there. The weather was starting to turn a little nasty .... high winds, and blowing snow ... so the pilot turned round (the Beaver is not that big of a plane) and told us he had good news and bad news: the bad news was we would have to land at Buffalo Narrows .... the good news, we might just have enough fuel to make it.:eek: We made it, barely, with the old Beaver sucking on fumes .... the pilot, and old-fashioned bushy from way back, took us all (well, all four of us) to the bar, where we all celebrated life by getting roaring drunk.:drink:

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Where is Riley's hill? You've got me thinking now.

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It is near Marsden Street...close to Priestley Clough, and where the Highams mill was....before they knocked it all down.

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Thankyou:)

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Ok, so my mom called me a "daft bogger" not a "daft ******":rolleyes:;):D

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Apparently some school's closures are being decided on the whim of caretakers. Though what qualifications they have for suspending children's education is beyond me.

I wonder how many staff would make it in, if there was to be a £1,000. bonus for those who got to work?

:rolleyes:


Sadly the whole fabric of what made us a great nation is being lost.

Sixty odd year ago we battled, fought adversity and were victorious, under much harsher conditions than we have today.

Now we can't even jump the first hurdle, in this race that is real life.

Pathetic.

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I agree with you Garinda. Although, I would defend the caretaker against the word 'whim'. He's responsible for the health and safety on the site so it's his job to make sure everything is safe. In these days of suing people at a 'whim' he has to be extra careful.

I remember back in the 70s or 80s, when there was a news article on TV or a storyline in a programme about a court case in America. I can't remember what the case was but it was basically a 'suing someone because they've tripped over a pavement' sort of case. My mum said, 'oh this is ridiculous, it'll never happen over here'. My dad said, 'oh yes it will, you just wait and see'. I think it's gone too far and people are so scared of being sued that they don't risk it.

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So would I Gayle because he is one of my neighbours ;)

Shame the Head Teacher can't be bothered to turn up though and check for him/herself. Could have helped clear the snow while he/she was there. After all how long can it take to clear the snow of those few steps and salt it with salt from the kitchen if they have no grit?

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I still think deciding to cease children's education should ultimately be the head's decision.

As Neil said, whoever is designated as being responsible for health and safety, would be better using their time ensuring safe acces to the building.

It was only 11 months ago that it last snowed, and people were giving the excuse that pupils should be allowed to stay off school because it was a 'once in a lifetime experience'.

Since this cold snap is forecast to last at least another couple of weeks, it seems ridiculous that children should be missing out on an education.

You can bet their contemporaries, in countries with similarly cold weather, and who one day they'll be competing against in the job market, won't be sat at home watching Jeremy Kyle.

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Back in 1962/3 there was snow from December through to March, can't remember the schools closing then, if that had been the case this year, (it still could be) how much time will the kids have to have off school:rolleyes: