In the bleak midwinter

It's Sunday again and it is so cold. I know that certain people will tell me that I don't know what real cold is like, and that may be the case, but I do recall in my childhood the extreme winter of I think 1962. Forgive me if I get dates wrong, they were never my strength, but that winter began late, and it stayed. In those days we lived in a council house in a small village, the situation of the property meant that it bore the full impact of the winds that howled through the valley and the only heat we had, came from a small coal fire in the living room. There was no double glazing, just draughty windows with metal frames. The bedrooms had no heat at all, electric fires were expensive to run and besides, we had none and there were very few sockets in the house anyway.
I don't remember when it began, but once the first blizzard struck, the snow lay and unusually it didn't go away. The nights were bitter, and snowfall after snowfall piled it deeply in huge drifts that made travel impossible and blanketed the village with silence.
Each night frost would form on the insides of the windows and glasses of water left at bedsides would freeze solid too. We'd dress and undress under the bedclothes and in the mornings press pennies against the windows to thaw out a peephole to se what the night had brought.
The rivers froze over and then seemed to freeze solid. We could walk to the next village on the ice and frequently did. I remember hands and feet numb with cold. Woolen gloves and wellington boots quickly became wet, but we still remained out of doors more or less until the light began to fail.
The nights were the worst time and the almost smoky cold seeped into everything and it felt like we'd never be warm again. In the evenings we'd cluster around the tiny fire while wet garments hung steaming on the clothes horse. We'd dread bedtime and the prospect of the icy sheets.
Now we have double glazing and central heating and the prospect of power cuts in the next few months. What then? Most of us have no coal fires and if the power does go and the freeze continues people will be in deep trouble. Let's hope that it doesn't come to that.