So this is Global warming !!!!

It was possibly only a couple of years ago that we were being told due to global warming we would have vineyards in Kent, the weather in Scotland would be a bit wetter. The use of hose pipes was banned in many parts of the UK and artesien wells were running dry causing subsidence in the chalk downs. NOW - from the news and happening of the last five days we have a "Day after Tomorrow Scenario", which is a bit scary, all these folks trapped in Exmoor, the M5 motorway closed and large icicles falling from the Severn Bridges onto cars.

BUT - "when I was a lad" living outside Balerno I can remember walking up through the snow and drifts to Harlaw and Threipmuir Reservoirs to skate on the reservoir, while crowds were curling and bonfires were burning. In Penicuik there were two curling ponds in regular use within the grounds of Penicuik Estate and another on the Roslin South Road, adjacent to the old Moat Pit.
In 1954 , while living at East Kinleith farm, Currie, right at the top of the Kirkgate the road was blocked for a couple of weeks with drifts over twenty feet deep and it took a tractor with a fork / shovel on the front to dig it out, all carted away by trailer. In the meantime the farmer had to roll his milk churns over the fields to a part where the milk lorry could reach.
We moved into Currie proper on the Lanark Road, and when the snow came I went sledging with the minister's son, Peter Smith who had a superb four seater sledge and we battered up and down the hill at the side of Currie Senior Secondary School. When I needed a warm it was easy to nip into see my Godgather, Ramsay Blair, who had the local smithy next to the school. Peter and myself were always getting into trouble and my Dad and the Rev. Will Smith were forever hunting us for a rollicking.

When I moved to Durham in 1963 to 1966, again we had weather problems and on a morning when Elvet Bank leading into Durham City was blocked with skidding cars , our coach - en route to the Durham technical College would be stopped and we debussed, and working in teams cleared the road by pushing cars up the hill till the gritters got it cleared . This was a very regular occurrence and it certainly helped to be fit.

Back north and in the late 60 's early 70's, Penicuik, with its own little eco system was forever getting blocked in. It was not uncommon for the Police to be out for hours pushing cars, etc. One night I "waded" waist deep in snow getting folks out of cars between Carlops and West Linton , taking them to a stranded coach untill such time as vehicles came over trhe fileds and took them to shelter i West Linton where they were trapped in shelter for two more days. This was a classic for two of our "Edinburgh City Police " traffic officers who were sent from Portobello in their cosy car , town shoes, and light jackets - to help - they were stuck at West Linton for two days also, so it was a case of " Car 42 Where are You?"

Then, it was not a case of running out of salt and grit, we had a strike by the snow plough drivers, and with road which were absolute sheets of ice - we would stand in the middle of the road at the bad bend near Hillend and just keep cars passing each other apart by just pushing them sideways.
On a memorable night - at the top of Lowries Den, the A702 was a sheet of ice and we were trying to slow cars down two hundred yards away from the bends but they just kept skidding past us. After a few hours in the freezing cold,( now about 12 m.n.) the road was gritted, our boss Sgt. George Summors contacted the Office to tell Lucille our typist and Margaret the cleaner ( who had stayed on waiting for us - to get the kettle on and to go get the bottle from his desk drawer - so when we arrived it was large mugs of hot steaming coffee seriously laced with a good whisky - that turned out to be a good night !!!

The snow was also the cause of a couple of night shift Officers being complained about !!
The green keeper at the Penicuik Bowling Club arrived one morning and there, straight across the bowling green were two sets of footprints leading from the gate, straight across the bowling green to the main door and then round the building as the Police had been checking the doors - but of course the footprints in the snow turned to ice with the likelihood of the ice damaging the grass rather than the blanket of snow protecting the green.

The other week I wrote about the man we caught by his footsteps in the snow, and from the papers i see that several other "silly works" have been caught similarly during the past two weeks.