I've never seen snow like it in Wales. We woke to the downstairs of our home being completely snowed in, my dad and I climbing out of an upstairs bedroom window in order to dig a path from the front door to the nearest clear road.
It was one of those life experience moments, which I'll never forget, perhaps not so much because of the snow, but the community spirit that freak weather brought and how people helped each other.
My dad and I took orders for bread and milk and made our way to Neath (some 3 miles walk) with a hastily made sled. We got as far as the cemetery in Llantwit, which is as far as the JCB digger got before giving up the ghost, the drifting snow there was about 12-15 feet high and the digger simply couldn't dig it's way through. Some men had cut a walk way through and it was quite eery to be walking through a snow corridor - the top of the drift towering about my 12 yr old head.
As the video produced by Wales Online (below) shows, when we got to the town, the people who had ventured out formed queues to get what ever supplies they could. We had stout early so managed well and strapping what we bought, we high-tailed it back to the families completely caught out by the weather. They milk, eggs and bread would see them right for a few days.
In those days there were very few cars about, no big Tesco's and only two or three houses on our street had a phone. The lifeline for information was still very much radio, with the four channels on our new colour 20" TV catching on fast.
Sat Nav's, Mobile Phones, iPad's, Social Media, a home internet connection, hadn't seen the light of day at that point and would have only distracted us kids from the fun that ensued in the three days Tonna was effectively cut off from the world.
It was a fun time and something I'll always remember. You sometimes wonder why with all of our connectedness to each other these days, so many people feel isolated and alone.
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