January 19th 1963 was a Saturday, the day we had chosen to get engaged and
have a typical London East End knees up. It dawned clear and sunny and
perishing
cold (-3C with a 25 mph wind blowing) rather like it had been for the
previous three weeks.
However by lunchtime ,that ominous thickening of the sky was occurring to
the south ,the wind got even stronger with the temperature still at -3c,
then finally the snow set in at 3-30 pm.
Drifts soon built up along many busy streets with the temp then down
to -4C,making the ferrying of those essential ingredients to any good 1963
party (like kegs of beer,and hundreds of ham sandwiches) very difficult.
My future father in law had installed a LeoGlow paraffin heater in the glass
lean-to extension at the back of their house ,where the bar had been set up
,but that proved little defence to the freezing wind,in fact by 6 pm there
was 2" of snow sitting on top of said heater !which had blown through a tiny
gap around a window.
The guests began to arrive just about on time ,quite deterred to 'have a
good p... up'
(which they sure did),and as far as I can recollect very little was said of
the arctic conditions we were going through ,such is the way we can very
quickly adjust to our environment.Only one couple never made it ,they
couldn't get out of their road four miles away !
When the blizzard finally ceased around 11-30 pm(yes,even then I was keeping
an eye on events outside ,please don't remind my wife),about 6 " of snow had
fallen,with drifts up to 4 feet in many places .Some of the guests couldn't
identify their own cars under the massive piles everywhere,so had to wait
until daylight and get digging.
To finally cap that memorable night ,freezing rain began to fall on top of
the rutted surfaces ,making driving virtually impossible throughout the
Sunday,but this at least insured all remaining ham sandwiches were
consumed by the bleary eyed stragglers.
Those were the days , somewhat different to our present day conditions when
we have to rely on vicarious reports from the Highlands of Scotland ! .

RonB