Snow difference?

13/01/10 | Posted by Poppy

For the last ten days I've been struggling to get to work through the snow and although it has been hard at times there have been some real benefits as people remember what it is like to be a community and help each other out. But when the thaw comes will it change how we behave?

 Lots of Snow!

If you live outside the UK the news story about the big chill is here.

I live in a part of the UK which has a mild microclimate and where snow is a rarity. People who remember the last great snow fall of 1963 tell me that, way back then, in my town there was only a few inches of snow on the ground. This was very insignificant when the rest of the country had ground to a halt under feet of snow. When you went out to the town boudnries there were snow drifts up to head height.

So all in all it was lovely to wake up to 6 inches (15cm in new money!) of lovely fluffy white snow last week. The kids had most of the week off school and I walked into work every day. It was picture postcard pretty with snow on the trees and houses, and what was best was that my normal mile or so walk to work was managed with no cars or lorries on the road, just the sound of snow crunching underfoot. Lovely!

And people have been behaving differently. On that first day someone in a 4 X 4 type vehicle, who saw me walking into town, offered me a lift to work. They didn’t know me, but saw me bundled up in my coat, hat, scarf, walking boots and legwarmers and thought I might appreciate some help. It seems like the snow fall was the start of people remembering what it is like to have neighbours and be a community again. My neighbour’s children helped clear the drive and people have been looking out for each other and getting essential supplies in for the elderly people who didn’t want to risk going outside. A friend’s car broke down in the worst of the snowfall and as she sat waiting for the breakdown service she was given hot drinks by someone from a nearby house. A group of waiters from the local restaurant helped push her car off the road and onto the pavement. Sometimes in the busy, busy world on comuter towns it can feel as if no one knows you and no one cares but it seems that the community spirit is still there under the surface.

It would be a real shame if that community spirit goes when the snow does.

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