Fog

[Sheila]

We have had a lot of fog in the north west recently.  I remember many 'pea soopers' when I was younger but it is unusual to have fog now.

Paul drove us to Manchester yesterday and coming back along the motorway he was not happy.  He does not like driving in the dark so adding fog made him a very tense bunny and he was shattered by the time we got home. 

We had a good time with my daughters and grandchildren, finished off with an excellent Indian takeaway.  The plan had been to go to the restaurant but we changed it.

We hadn't all got together like that for a couple of years.  Fingers crossed now that nobody had covid but we had all taken tests.

[Michael Rolls]

Glad to hear that you all had a good time, Sheila. We lived in London just after the war, when virtually everyone had coal fires - some of those fogs were truly awful
Mike

[Michael Rolls]

Another foggy morning here -although strictly speaking, I suppose it's thick mist as we have a bit over 100 yards visibility
Mike

[Alex]

We had a lot of fog yesterday too and it seemed to be freezing.  This morning I can see the house across the road again, thankfully.

[klondike]

The old time fogs were laced with pollutants. Lot less of that these days with few coal fires but wood burners and cars are doing their best to take us back to the bad old days.

[TREBOR]

Watching a film no Netflix (The Crown) about the famous London smogs in the 1950s reminded me of a very bad fog in the early 1960s when I was 3 weeks into my first job. It was late in the year and dark by 4'oclock so the boss told me to leave while the buses were still running.

I managed to get one part of the way but it terminated early and I had no choice but to walk, Did not know the route or the area well and missed my way at a large traffic island and began to walk down the wrong road. I must have gone more than a mile before I almost bumped into a man who suddenly emerged out of the murk in front of me. It was like something out of Hammer films. It turned out I was walking in completely the wrong direction. Instead of making a half circle at the island I had made a quarter circle.

Fortunately he lived at the top of the road I needed to take so he was able to set me back on the correct route. It was a long lonely walk in the dark and the street lights made little difference. The edge of the kerb could barely be seen.  When I got home there were droplets of black moisture on my clothes and in my hair.

[zoony]

I only experienced one or two real 'smogs' in the 50s and, at my age then, they were just a fun phenomenon.. I can't imagine what toll they must have taken on the asthmatics and COPD sufferers of the day..

[Michael Rolls]

They were awful. One my mother and I experienced was just unbelievable, although it was in Walton, not central London, although when we moved to the Old Kent Road area in 1945 we experienced some nasty ones there as well, one of which had me - 8 years old  - walking something like two miles to get home from school after the buses quit
Mike

[Wandering Walter]

I remember the fogs back in the 50's and 60's the Cotton Mill Chimneys belching out smoke from their coal fuelled boilers and the smell of soot, every building and house was covered in layers of soot sometimes you could only see a few yards .

When the clean air act came in many householders and shops had their homes and buildings sand blasted to remove the years of grime and soot made my home town look much better.

   

[Scrumpy]

I remember having to walk in front of (first) husbands car when we hit bad fog that rolled across the common.. Nothing would stop him getting to a darts match..!!
I must have been thick.. like the bloody fog..

Sheila.. My heart goes out to Paul.. Bless him.. I hope he had a nice lie down..

[Sheila]

Sheila.. My heart goes out to Paul.. Bless him.. I hope he had a nice lie down..

I took one look at him when we got home and poured him a large glass of wine.  My eldest daughter was staying with us and she looked shocked when I poured him a second one.  I didn't look at her when I poured the third.  He slept well!