storywintertime

Winters were not very nice in those days either. As there was no central heating, the coal fires in the house had to be lit every morning. This meant more hard work. Perhaps a few times a week, Mam or Dad or one of the family would have to go down the steep steps to the coal house, break up the huge lumps of coal with a sledge hammer, and put the small pieces in a bucket.
Then small sticks would be chopped from a log that Dad had brought home from the mine,and these together with the coal were carried up the steps and stored on the bailey ready for the morning.
The following morning the ashes were cleared from the fireplace,
old newspapers were twisted around, placed in the grate
and the sticks were placed on top,
paper was lit and as soon as the sticks were alight,
the small pieces of coal were placed on top.
Then it was time for a cup of tea, that is,
if there was water in the kettle sat on the gas stove,
because in winter if the kettle hadn't been filled the night before,
chances were the outside tap (see Fig 1)would be frozen solid!
Winters also meant going to bed earlier.
I remember that my bedroom was very cold with ice
forming on the inside of the window, and as I didn't
have a hot water bottle, Mam would put an old flat iron
on the gas stove to heat up and then place it in my bed
wrapped in an old towel.
As there was no electricity upstairs, Mam would give me a candle,
and off I went to my little cold and dark bedroom.
I would lay awake for ages cuddling my flat iron, seeing how many animals I could make on the bedroom wall with the shadows cast by the candlelight, until either I frightened myself to death or fell asleep!
We had proper winters when I was young, plenty of snow and ice.
About half a mile from where I lived was a big pond we called "Shoni's pond", and in winter it was always frozen over. We weren't allowed there of course, because it was dangerous.
When we arrived at the pond we always threw large stones on to the ice to make sure it would hold our weight, and we spent many a happy hour sliding across the pond.
At the end of our street was a steep hill called Walters road and in the evening we carried buckets of water to pour on the road, and soon the hill was one sheet of ice.
Standing upright we slid down the hill often ending up with a bloody nose or cuts an bruises as we were brought to a sudden stop by the wall at the bottom.
Luckily there weren't many cars then, just as well because when we had finished there was no way they would have got up that hill.
When we had lots of snow, my friends and I built an igloo by making huge snowballs and then cutting them square with a shovel, but we never seemed to get the roof right as it often crashed down on our heads as we were inside.
We also made sleds or"sledges" as we called them from old pieces of wood, and off we went to "Pidgies"a steep field nearby. Halfway down the field was a rock jutting out from the hill, we aimed our sleds at this rock. It was like a ski jump and if you didn't hang on tight the sledge went one way and you the other.
We found an old ladder once, seven or eight of us sat on it and off we went at a fair old speed, missed the rock and ended up in a clump of prickly gorse bushes at the bottom.
It was fun to be young then! Next

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Winter Time

Winters were not very nice in those days either. As there was no central heating, the coal fires in the house had to be lit each morning. This meant more hard work. Perhaps a few times a week, Mam, Dad, or some other member of the family, would go down to the coal house, break up the huge lumps of coal with a sledge-hammer, and put the pieces in to a bucket. Then small sticks were chopped from a log that Dad had brought home from the mine, and these together with the bucket of coal, were carried up the steps, and stored on the bailey ready for the morning.
The ashes from the previous day were cleared from the
fire places,old twisted newspapers were places in the grate,
and the sticks were placed on the top.
The paper was then lit, and as soon as the sticks were
alight, the small pieces of coal were laid gently on top.
Then it was time for a cup of tea, that is, if there was water
in the kettle on the stove, because in winter, if the kettle
had not been filled the night before, the chances were,
the tap on the bailey would be frozen solid!
Winters also meant going to bed earlier. We had no hot
water bottles, so Mam would heat up an old flat iron on the
gas stove, wrap it up in a towel, and pop it into my bed.
As we had no electricity upstairs, mam gave me a candle,
and off I went to my cold,dark,bedroom.
I would lay awake for ages, cuddling my flat iron, seeing how
many animals I could make on the the wall with the shadow cast by the candle, until either I frightened myself to death, or fell asleep.

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