90 Years of Snowy Tale: Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Satuday image is of a man with a zoom  camera lens, taking  photographs in the Antarctic.  A cue for me to write about snowy tales - very appropriate as in   the Scottish Borders it is snowing as I draft this post,

 

An idyllic snowy picture of Selkirk in the Scottish Borders c.1925.  

from the collection of the Heritage Hub, Hawick.

 

Luxembourg, 1944 

My father (left) was briefly stationed in Luxembourg in 1944 before the Battle of the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine  into Germany.  He became friendly with the Batten family and was welcomed into their home.  Here he is with Mr Batten and his little daughter.  Dad remained in contact with Mr. Batten for many years and these two photographs I found in Dad's album.

From bountiful images to less happy experiences of snow. 

MISERY IN SNOW   

I have no winter photographs of my childhood - cameras must have been reserved for summer and I  can't say I have any memorable weather memories either.   - I was too young to recollect the dreadful winter of 1947.   But my parents' memories of the Big Freeze of 1947 remained powerful and that year  has gone down in history as one of the worst winters experienced in  Britain.  According to Met.  Office records,  snow fell every day somewhere in the UK for a run of 55 days, with the temperature  on most days barely exceeded freezing,  causing hardship in both living conditions and in industry and farming.  This was in the early  post war   years of austerity,with food rationing, fuel shortages and power cuts   rife. 

  

Like most people,  our home had no such thing as central heating,  so we had to huddle around the one fire in the living room - the only room with heating. Frost appeared on the inside of the bedroom windows.  We kept the inner person warm with my mother's simple, hearty comfort food, but for Mum especially it was a worrying time, trying to keep my little baby brother warm. 

Below:  the 1947 winter in Earlston in the Scottish Borders where I now live  - photographs courtesy of the Auld Earlston Group 

 

In fine weather,  this is the main A68 road through the central Borders, linking Edinburgh and England.    

Digging out the train at Earlston Station.  

By 1963  (another  notoriously bad winter) we were in Edinburgh and I recall my mother worried at the non-arrival of my father from a business trip to London (before the days of mobile phones and instant communication).  He was stranded overnight on a train stuck in the Border hills, with an engine sent to rescue it also trapped..

Our  daughter was born in January,  so an unfortunate time for planning parties.   Here she is on her 4th birthday - not looking too happy outside  in Hawick.  Still we went through the ritual of a birthday photograph in 1977.

 

Then came all the talk of global warming, mild and wet winters (umbrellas the essential accessory).  2001 was a blip with some of  the worst snow for years, and Hawick was cut off for three days and I could not get to work, with no buses running outside the town.  I resorted to creative  cookery from what was in my store cupboard and for the first occasion in years had time to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.    

This was our hill down to the High Street  and the supermarket.  Resourceful people were trudging down with rucksacks on their back and pulling a sledge to bring shopping back up the hill.  

 

FUN IN SNOW

 

Our dog enjoyed a romp in the snow. on the hill behind out house 

 

 

 We enjoyed catching  sight of the heron on the Slitrig Water in Hawick

 

 

 

 Taking a walk in the snowy woods

 

 

 Summer snow in July 1997  - 

husband and I are on the Stubai Glacier, near Innsbruck in Austria 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying a winter walk with friends, 1966

I am wearing my favourite fur hood, made fashionable after the film of Dr. Zhivago/ 

Members of Earlston Curling Club enjoying a game out of doors. 1995

Somebody' idea of fun!  Playing at snow angels, 2018. 

 

*******

Snow when it first falls can  be a wonderful magical experience transforming the landscape.  But when it changes to an icy, slippery danger, I prefer not to venture outside,  and when it ends up as grey, messy, slush on pavements,  it is a depressing, wet experience trying to negotiate pavemnts and cross roads. 

BEAUTY IN SNOW 

So let's end on a positive note with some of my favourite snow pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Harvard Yard, Cambriidge ., Mass. 1966 when a spent a year working in the USA

12th cenutry Melrose Abbey, five miles from my home. 2018

 

 

Road out of Earlston, 2018
 

 

 

 

 

                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granddaughter exploring this new world of snow for the first time in 2010.

                                                     

   ******************

 

Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photographs.

 

Zoom HERE to read  more stories  from Sepia Saturday bloggers.