John: We’re all snow persons now

Jan 7 2010 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

People have even been seen stealing grit from public roadside bins to scatter on their own drives and paths, and that’s unforgivably selfish.

But bad weather does tend to bind communities together. It’s seen as a common foe. Many selfless acts, like shovelling an infirm neighbour’s pathway free of snow or giving cars a helping push, have gone unrecorded and unrewarded, as is often the way with goodness.

I hope I’m not being jaundiced if I observe that we seem somehow less resourceful than of old when we’re hit by bad weather.

As Holme resident Arthur Quarmby has recently pointed out, people used to pull an old pair of socks over their outdoor shoes or wellies to give better traction on icy pavements.

People would tie rope or chicken wire round their tyres to get a bit of grip on icy roads.

Every car boot had a shovel, a thick coat or blanket, a flask of water or something stronger, a packet of biscuits and a petrol can for emergencies during inclement weather.

Neighbours would organise pavement clearing teams. Even if you cleared only your own path and the public highway to your neighbour’s boundary, the street would be clear in no time.

Now, we just whinge because nobody has done it for us.

There is one special benefit of a protracted cold snap, and gardeners and allotment-holders will know what it is.

Sustained frosts kill off a great number of the ugly bugglies that lie in wait in the soil and under leaves and stones to blight next year’s crop.

So perhaps every snow-cloud has a silver lining.