Snow transported us to a more innocent age (From Bucks Free Press)

Snow transported us to a more innocent age

8:24pm Wednesday 20th January 2010 in

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THE one really good thing to come out of the snow and ice for me was the way the cold weather transported us to a bygone, more innocent age.

For several days, I had no car because it was trapped on my sloping drive, so I had to walk to work or take a bus.

Not only did this get me fit but it meant I ended up going home much earlier because there was a necessity to leave the office on time due to the long walk ahead.

And, rather than drive alone as usual and rant at the traffic, I was able to stride along chatting with colleagues.

It was so very sociable that we all decided to go to the pub after an unusually early press night.

Printing deadlines had been made much earlier than normal because our production staff risked being snowed in otherwise.

This meant no mucking around on deadline and was actually far less stressful.

I probably hadn’t been to the pub after work socially with staff for about 15 years, but we shared several pints and even ended up chatting to real members of the public.

Isn’t it funny how the confines of your motor isolates you from the rest of the world?

Even then, we weren’t home that late. But there was one problem back at the ranch – no food.

I’d had a new fridge delivered a week ago to replace my broken one, but now there was nothing to put in it.

You see, for years we have relied on supermarket vans to deliver all our groceries in one fell swoop to our door.

This allows us to run around like maniacs on the weekend doing other pursuits.

The weekend before last, however, was very different. There was no transport to get to these other pursuits, and we had to actually go out shopping by ourselves anyway – just like my parents had to do in their day, and our hunter/gatherer ancestors had to in their day.

But as there was no junior football, as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday morning, I was still able to have lie-ins for once.

Then Mrs Editor’s Chair, the Chair Junior and I all put rucksacks on our backs and trekked to the Marsh Retail Park.

We just made it in time. Moments later and all the milk in M&S would have been gone.

I saw people buying cartons of banana milkshakes instead because the shelves were so empty.

We left the store and to my horror, I discovered I had frostbite on my right foot. To my added horror, I found it to be a result of a huge split in my nice, pretty but ineffectual brown boots.

Luckily, I was right outside Wickes and was able to buy a pair of manly builder boots for £25 which saved me from walking home barefoot and actually made me feel quite macho.

I felt like an Arctic explorer as we trudged back through the snow with the rations in the bags on our back.

The next day, we repeated the act and went marching into the town centre to ensure we had fully stocked up.

All this took almost the entire weekend and there was little time for anything else. But it was nice. For once, our lives had been slowed down and there was no pressure to be in three places at the same time as normal.

I almost regretted it on the Monday when I managed to finally move my car off the drive, and when I returned to my insular world of road rage and rushing about.

But what’s the moral? Should we ban cars, stop new technology and conveniences and try to return to the world of a 1950s’ Bovril advert?

No, of course not, but perhaps the mums and dads of the UK should all take this as a lesson and learn to slow down and enjoy some simpler pleasures at the weekends.

Except we won’t, and we’ll carry on rushing about like whirling dervishes until the next time it snows.