Snow Flurries

We've had a surprisingly mild winter so far. We have had a couple of days of snow, but not enough to cause too many problems, such as ice on the roads or drifts blocking the main highways or incommoding such things as airports and railways. We have had a couple of mornings when there has been frost and the car's windows have been iced up so we've had to scrape it off. But we were prepared and got a can of deicer as well as a scraper from the supermarket. Problem solved. The car has a good heating system which soon melts off any ice. Unlike the old car, which was so antiquated I don't think they had such refinements in them when they were built back in the days of the Ark. But this morning it was considerably colder and there was a small amount of ice on the windscreen. Strangely it was not on the driver's side but it was easy enough to scrape off. There was a flurry of snowflakes, so are we to be whited out? No, I expect not. I said to Carol, as we sat in the car waiting for it to warm up, "So, the kids will be out building snowmen in the playground then at break time?" To which she replied "No. Because they're not allowed to." How miserable can you get? When I was at school we couldn't wait to rush out at break time and have snowball fights and build snowmen. What is it with today's kill-joys? Health and safety have gone mad. I remember all sorts of things we did when it snowed when I was a child; sledging, walking on ice in ponds (dangerous, I know, thinking about it now.) and particularly making snowmen and even igloos out of snow which was made by rolling snowballs in the snow and making really big blocks of snow/ice, when it froze on thick snow. We made some fantastic igloo-constructions which seemed to last for ages. At school, we had to go out and help clear the playground of snow when I was at Rushmoor School. There was a large pile of snow up against a wall at one end of the playground which seemed to remain there for days on end. It must have frozen hard to such an extent that it began to push the wall at a rather dangerous angle. I'm not sure now whether it actually pushed the wall over, but it would have been quite unsafe. None of this nonsense with health and safety in those days. I think it was the winter of 1962-63, or thereabouts when the snow lasted what seemed like months. So much so that the roads were blocked but it didn't stop people moving about. And school went on regardless. I think we must have been much hardier then, no fussing about it being too cold or anything. And certainly no shortages of food, lorries or trains not getting through.