the winter of '63
The Winter of '63
by John Tythe
Boxing Day 1962 - I remember it well.
"It's snowing!" I said and watched it falling, wishing it to get thick enough for some meaningful playing.
It did! And it did. And it did!
Condensation on the windows froze, the drain pipe froze, which didn't matter too much, as the water pipe froze too!
I built an igloo in the garden. My old dad wasn't too impressed with me walking fresh supplies of snow through the house to make more blocks of compacted snow.
A visit to the Daily Mail International Schoolboys Exhibition at Olympia in the snow was a good day out.
A walk back from Olympia, through a snowy Hyde Park, led me to the Albert memorial, the base of which had snow drifts up to the statue. I climbed up, to slide down the pristine drift, only to plummet through the snow to ground level, leaving a body shaped hole above me! The snow was soft, but hadn't caved in on me, yet! I just stumbled forward pushing my way through with some snow caving in as I went, but was soon out. Looking back I could have been injured and froze to death. But Hey - we were tough!
We moved house in the February and had to get the Metropolitan Water Board to come and unfreeze the pipes of the new house. They did this by connecting an electric generator via long leads to the water pipes in the house, one by the stop cock and the other at the highest point. They then passed the current through the pipes and the heating effect thawed the frozen pipes. They then repaired all the leaks - of which there were many!
That was real snow, in a real winter!
by John Tythe
Boxing Day 1962 - I remember it well.
"It's snowing!" I said and watched it falling, wishing it to get thick enough for some meaningful playing.
It did! And it did. And it did!
Condensation on the windows froze, the drain pipe froze, which didn't matter too much, as the water pipe froze too!
I built an igloo in the garden. My old dad wasn't too impressed with me walking fresh supplies of snow through the house to make more blocks of compacted snow.
A visit to the Daily Mail International Schoolboys Exhibition at Olympia in the snow was a good day out.
A walk back from Olympia, through a snowy Hyde Park, led me to the Albert memorial, the base of which had snow drifts up to the statue. I climbed up, to slide down the pristine drift, only to plummet through the snow to ground level, leaving a body shaped hole above me! The snow was soft, but hadn't caved in on me, yet! I just stumbled forward pushing my way through with some snow caving in as I went, but was soon out. Looking back I could have been injured and froze to death. But Hey - we were tough!
We moved house in the February and had to get the Metropolitan Water Board to come and unfreeze the pipes of the new house. They did this by connecting an electric generator via long leads to the water pipes in the house, one by the stop cock and the other at the highest point. They then passed the current through the pipes and the heating effect thawed the frozen pipes. They then repaired all the leaks - of which there were many!
That was real snow, in a real winter!
Paul Kenealy
Around the end of the first term of the fifth year I was becoming more and more disillusioned with school. My mum and dad expected me to take my GCEs and get an apprenticeship. My plans however were to get a job as soon as possible. I had the paper round, but that only paid 15 shillings a week. Anyway, being a rock star in waiting, I needed a better Bass Guitar and a bigger amp. Drastic times call for drastic measures. At the end of November we took our mock exams. I did all right in TD and Metalwork, Art was OK, but English and particularly Maths were not good. I decided to look for a job.
I saw an advertisement for a ‘shop boy, trainee under manager’. It was a grocery shop in Blackstock Road, starting wage £3 per week. The times were 9.00 to 5.00 Monday to Friday and 9.00 to 1.00 on a Saturday. I could do my paper round first, and still get to the Arsenal at 3.00 on a Saturday afternoon. I went into the shop and applied for the job.
I told the truth at the interview. I wanted to start work and leave school. I must have answered all the questions right, because they offered me the job. Start next week. ‘By the way, do you have your National Insurance Card?’ I’d never had one, never needed one before. ‘Oh you need one because we have to put an insurance stamp on your card every week. You can get one at the youth employment office in Seven Sister Road’. So off I went. My first real experience with the establishment, up until this time my mum and dad had dealt with all of the form filling.
My name gets called out and I tell the man behind the big desk that I need an insurance card. OK he says, you’ll have to bring your national health card. Where will I find that then. Your mum will have it probably along with your birth certificate. You can make an appointment for tomorrow and bring it then. OK tomorrow it is.
OH SHIT. I haven’t told mum and dad, they’ll go potty. Well not if I don’t tell them. So I went home and rummaged through the drawer in the front room where mum kept all the important documents. Strangely enough I found it. It had my name, date of birth and my National Health number on it. I also took out my birth certificate. I duly went back to the office the next day. OK you fill out this form, and take it to your school. It has to be signed by your headmaster. OH SHIT. I hadn’t told him either. He will go ape. So anyway, the school hadn’t broken up for the Christmas Holidays yet, so Mr Davies was in his office. I had to knock and wait outside the secretary’s office, and after a while Mr Davies let me into his office.
He was not best pleased that I wanted to leave his school before the end of the fifth year. He was very understanding, but wished that I was staying on. He was perfectly honest. He could not stop me from leaving school as I was over fifteen, but was surprised that I had come without my mum or dad. He said he would sign the form after he had spoken to my mum or dad on the phone. As both my parents worked full time he wouldn’t be able to phone them. OK you go home and bring a letter from them tomorrow. At this point I changed tack. I told Mr Davies that I only wanted the job for the Christmas Holidays, and that I would be back again the next term. He seemed to mellow, and signed the form. I went back to the Youth Employment Office and got my NI card.
I duly started on Monday morning. Mum and dad were cool about the situation. Over the next week I had thought the situation through. I’d told the shop I was there for the long run. I’d told Mr Davies I was only there for the holidays, which is also what I’d told to mum and dad. I came to the conclusion that the job was OK for the holidays, but I certainly didn’t want to work in a shop for the rest of my days. Anyway, I didn’t tell the manager(ess). The job was dead boring. I had to fetch stock up from the store room and re stock the shelves. Unload the delivery vans. Clear up the cardboard boxes. I was never allowed to work behind the counter, slice the ham, cut up the cheese, nothing. Not even deliver the groceries on the shop bike. The best part was that the winter 1962/3 was the worst for many years, my first job every day was clearing the foot high snow drifts from the pavement outside the shop. I was being paid to play with the snow.
I lasted through the Christmas Holidays, and then gave in my resignation the day before I had to go back to school. I explained to the manager that the headmaster and my mum and dad had persuaded me to go back to school. What I didn’t say was that they had persuaded me before I started.
I went back to school and back to the same routine, except that I’d learned one important lesson. If I didn’t do well in my exams and get a decent job, I could end up working in a shop or a factory for the rest of my life. The snow lasted till March 1963. One good thing was that through the bad weather there was no football north of London, so Arsenal didn’t lose an away game for three months. The good news was that as Highbury was one of the only grounds that had under soil heating, so all our home games were on. In those days Arsenal v Spurs had the reserve sides playing at the opposite ground on the same day. One Saturday in February we were due to play Spurs away, but as their ground was snow covered both teams put out their first teams in the Football Combination fixture that was played at Highbury. As it was the only match to be played that day it was the featured game on ‘Match of the Day’ that evening. I think we won about 2-0 or 2-1. I think the only time that two reserve teams have been featured in MOTD.
Micky Simmonds
Yes, I did have a party as I was born on Boxing Day. The snow stated falling and to my memory did not clear until the following March. The reason I remember so well is that there was no horse racing until the March of 1963 which meant I sat about in the betting office doing nothing.
[What Mick fails to tell you all is that he deliberately invited me to his party so that he could pair me off with one of the girls there. Fool that I am, I fell for it and spent the next twenty-four years regretting it. - ed]
Around the end of the first term of the fifth year I was becoming more and more disillusioned with school. My mum and dad expected me to take my GCEs and get an apprenticeship. My plans however were to get a job as soon as possible. I had the paper round, but that only paid 15 shillings a week. Anyway, being a rock star in waiting, I needed a better Bass Guitar and a bigger amp. Drastic times call for drastic measures. At the end of November we took our mock exams. I did all right in TD and Metalwork, Art was OK, but English and particularly Maths were not good. I decided to look for a job.
I saw an advertisement for a ‘shop boy, trainee under manager’. It was a grocery shop in Blackstock Road, starting wage £3 per week. The times were 9.00 to 5.00 Monday to Friday and 9.00 to 1.00 on a Saturday. I could do my paper round first, and still get to the Arsenal at 3.00 on a Saturday afternoon. I went into the shop and applied for the job.
I told the truth at the interview. I wanted to start work and leave school. I must have answered all the questions right, because they offered me the job. Start next week. ‘By the way, do you have your National Insurance Card?’ I’d never had one, never needed one before. ‘Oh you need one because we have to put an insurance stamp on your card every week. You can get one at the youth employment office in Seven Sister Road’. So off I went. My first real experience with the establishment, up until this time my mum and dad had dealt with all of the form filling.
My name gets called out and I tell the man behind the big desk that I need an insurance card. OK he says, you’ll have to bring your national health card. Where will I find that then. Your mum will have it probably along with your birth certificate. You can make an appointment for tomorrow and bring it then. OK tomorrow it is.
OH SHIT. I haven’t told mum and dad, they’ll go potty. Well not if I don’t tell them. So I went home and rummaged through the drawer in the front room where mum kept all the important documents. Strangely enough I found it. It had my name, date of birth and my National Health number on it. I also took out my birth certificate. I duly went back to the office the next day. OK you fill out this form, and take it to your school. It has to be signed by your headmaster. OH SHIT. I hadn’t told him either. He will go ape. So anyway, the school hadn’t broken up for the Christmas Holidays yet, so Mr Davies was in his office. I had to knock and wait outside the secretary’s office, and after a while Mr Davies let me into his office.
He was not best pleased that I wanted to leave his school before the end of the fifth year. He was very understanding, but wished that I was staying on. He was perfectly honest. He could not stop me from leaving school as I was over fifteen, but was surprised that I had come without my mum or dad. He said he would sign the form after he had spoken to my mum or dad on the phone. As both my parents worked full time he wouldn’t be able to phone them. OK you go home and bring a letter from them tomorrow. At this point I changed tack. I told Mr Davies that I only wanted the job for the Christmas Holidays, and that I would be back again the next term. He seemed to mellow, and signed the form. I went back to the Youth Employment Office and got my NI card.
I duly started on Monday morning. Mum and dad were cool about the situation. Over the next week I had thought the situation through. I’d told the shop I was there for the long run. I’d told Mr Davies I was only there for the holidays, which is also what I’d told to mum and dad. I came to the conclusion that the job was OK for the holidays, but I certainly didn’t want to work in a shop for the rest of my days. Anyway, I didn’t tell the manager(ess). The job was dead boring. I had to fetch stock up from the store room and re stock the shelves. Unload the delivery vans. Clear up the cardboard boxes. I was never allowed to work behind the counter, slice the ham, cut up the cheese, nothing. Not even deliver the groceries on the shop bike. The best part was that the winter 1962/3 was the worst for many years, my first job every day was clearing the foot high snow drifts from the pavement outside the shop. I was being paid to play with the snow.
I lasted through the Christmas Holidays, and then gave in my resignation the day before I had to go back to school. I explained to the manager that the headmaster and my mum and dad had persuaded me to go back to school. What I didn’t say was that they had persuaded me before I started.
I went back to school and back to the same routine, except that I’d learned one important lesson. If I didn’t do well in my exams and get a decent job, I could end up working in a shop or a factory for the rest of my life. The snow lasted till March 1963. One good thing was that through the bad weather there was no football north of London, so Arsenal didn’t lose an away game for three months. The good news was that as Highbury was one of the only grounds that had under soil heating, so all our home games were on. In those days Arsenal v Spurs had the reserve sides playing at the opposite ground on the same day. One Saturday in February we were due to play Spurs away, but as their ground was snow covered both teams put out their first teams in the Football Combination fixture that was played at Highbury. As it was the only match to be played that day it was the featured game on ‘Match of the Day’ that evening. I think we won about 2-0 or 2-1. I think the only time that two reserve teams have been featured in MOTD.
Micky Simmonds
Yes, I did have a party as I was born on Boxing Day. The snow stated falling and to my memory did not clear until the following March. The reason I remember so well is that there was no horse racing until the March of 1963 which meant I sat about in the betting office doing nothing.
[What Mick fails to tell you all is that he deliberately invited me to his party so that he could pair me off with one of the girls there. Fool that I am, I fell for it and spent the next twenty-four years regretting it. - ed]