Web Log - February 10, 2007 - Mike Powell
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Hi John,
Just seen pictures of your snowfall on the international news. "Lake effect" snow got me during my last series of factory visits in December 2001. For a few days I managed to keep ahead of it but finally it caught up with me at Portland. I woke up to find my hire car almost submerged in snow and faced with a forty mile road journey to a factory on roads where the road signs and markings were obliterated with the white stuff. For the first and only time in 15 years/500 odd factories I cancelled and went back to bed! I wasn't old enough to drive in 1947 but I do remember that long cold winter (I was still in shorts!) The chap in the attached picture taken near Rochester, Kent has my admiration. When he has finished digging he will get back into his Austin 10 with no heater and pretty dodgy road holding - that's what I call a motorist. Best regards to you both, Mike |
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Feb 12, 2007
Thanks for the photo Mike. I remember in Berkshire in the 1950s we would get a couple of inches of snow, and like the poor guy in the photo my father would try to clear the front path with a coal shovel and a yard broom. Nowadays people would think you were feeble of mind to try that. Even our local grocery stores carry "snow shovels" these days; the trick is to spray them with cooking oil so the snow doesn't stick, something this poor guy has yet to learn. The news here is that the "Lake Effect" snow in the Buffalo region of New York has been particularly heavy this year. My grand-daughter living near Oswego has sent these photos, apparently taken this week. John W |
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Dec 20, 2008
The Morning After . . .
The photo shows how the village plow typically clears the road and dumps as much hard-packed snow as possible into everybody's driveway. I wonder what the point of clearing the road is, since nobody can get to it? John W |
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Dec 21, 2008 After yesterday's blizzard and another snowfall expected during the night I finally broke down after 30 years and purchased a snow blower! Only a small push-along, mind you, but it does the job. John W |
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If you have any news, stories or latest events you'd like to share I would
very much like to hear from you, especially if you served at the same time as me
in Blandford or Arborfield about 1958, or in Napier Barracks between 1959 and 1966.
Or maybe if you're looking for somebody already in these pages?
My very grateful thanks to John Bosher and Mick Toogood, whose valuable assistance and
encouragement drove me to start this, to Chris Fagan for some technical and
personnel details, and to those of you who have contributed photos, stories and personal
memories.
Also, many thanks for contributions from children of the members who served with us
but who are no longer with us.