To all you UK readers under fifty five; come... take a trip with me

Back to Christmas 1962  - and the New Year of '63.

On Boxing Day the first flakes fell but few folk were concerned,

But wiser minds stocked grates with logs - not to be "twice burned".

There was a lull and smug smiles came - and just as quickly went,

As Mother Nature took a breath and then gave it full vent!

The snow arrived across the land to fall... and fall...and fall,

Until it held the kingdom in its grip,..the Cold had come to call.

The wind blew across the country wide, its blasts watering the eye,

And snowdrifts piled side by side - up to fifteen feet high -

Blocking roads and railway lines - no chance for either travel,

And furious attempts commenced as life threatened to unravel

To rescue stranded transport and the people trapped within,

Whilst nature's creatures struggled without humanity's gritted grin.

Half the country's wild birds perished - the ground as hard as wood,

Preventing them foraging for their desperately needed food,

While the temperature fell like a stone to minus 20C below.

And still old Mother Nature kept on dishing out the snow

For weeks it fell to cover the land - no let-up was in sight,

With frozen winter days prematurely dark - like nightmarish endless night.

The River Thames actually froze fast - and people travelled it like a road,

And still the icy grip continued to last and still it snowed and snowed.

It was many weeks before that grip began to ease and snow stopped falling,

Allowing the slow return to life - with that hope that spring was calling.

But ALL of this is in the living memory of those who knew and met it,

And reminds us that Nature is no man's servant - and  let NO man ever forget it.

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