What is this "winter" of which forum members speak? Is it some kind of F-Type virus that afflicts these cars during certain times of the year and debilitates them to the point they can't be driven and enjoyed? How do those with vehicles so cursed get their F-Type fix? Youtube? Do those that put their cars in hibernation frequent this forum at the same rate? I can't imagine why; what would be the purpose other than reliving the past? I fear that my time on here will be greatly reduced because of the lack of timely and current ideas and experiences. I'm sad already and this plague called winter apparently hasn't yet begun in earnest. Aaargh!

 

Winter is this thing in a fairy tale. We here in the sand box have 4 seasons. Hot, hotter, hottest and Damn hot.

 

In the UK we can get all four seasons in a day!

 

Oh, that's just cold blooded! I am preparing for the cold, dark days ahead and you gloat LOL! My cat will be in hibernation until the snow and associated road salt and pea gravel are all gone in the Spring. Getting in as much drive time as I can now!

Here's my yard from last winter...

 

We normally don't get more then 20-30 cm snow, but no more then 3 or 4 times per year. It rarely lasts more then a week.

 

Here in the mid-Atlantic, we get a few times where the kitty gets a few days off, but it never goes into hibernation. Time permitting, we try to schedule a Snow Cat Run around New Years day.

 

It does happen once every ten or so years, but I just stay put--except for the one time I drove down to the beach just to see what it looked like covered with snow. I was the only car on the road in either direction.
Something just not right about a palm tree with snow on it.

 

 

Whilst it's apparent that forum members come from all parts of US and worldwide and are subjected to variation in severity of winter conditions I suspect another factor is widespread availability of choice of vehicles, when I was young fewer people owned one vehicle let alone multiple vehicles.

Choices then were between driving or not in winter, in severe winter conditions people carried snow chains and shovels to dig yourself out if you got stuck.

 

When I was young almost nobody had a car..

I remember as a toddler to 'tiger' over the streets as they were covered in sheet ice and it was impossible to stand up straight..
..on my way to kindergarten on the otherside of the square we lived on, in the centre of Utrecht.
We had folded newspapers under our hands otherwise they would freeze to the ground..

This was I think winter 1963/1964 or 1964/1965..

The 'house' we lived in was the attick of my mothers grandmother, single brick walls, no insulation. We heated these two
rooms with a coal fire and left the inside doors open to spread the heat evenly , [ read : lack of heat..].

Not that we realised we were poor ; we were very happy as kids, always playing in the streets and be naughty,

 

Great story, Dan. You grew up in an historic area, eh? Treaty of Utrecht signed there?

 

Treaty of Utrecht was 1713.. .. I'm not THAT old..

The Netherlands were extremely poor after WW2. All industry had to be [re-]build and there was an enormous lack of housing in general.
We also had the last spasms of a 'colonial power': Indonesia decided to become independant and the Dutch government wouldn't have it.
Pointless killings [ massacers of civilian indonesians maybe a million? ] and several thousands of Dutch soldiers. A black page in history..

The government then stimulated emigration in the 50-ties and lots of people went to Canada, Australia and New Zealand..

I think fall 1966, I am on the left.. .. playing cowboys in the street with my brother.. You can see plenty frontdoors in the back : ours opened to a stairway to the3rd floor
were my mothers grandparents lived. There was a toilet and a kitchen, a livingroom and a bedroom, and stairs to our floor.. That had a single bedroom that doubled as
our livingroom and the room where My brother and I slept in a bunkbed, with a handbasin... .. no batroom or shower indeed. Once a week a big tub, with water heated on the
coalheater in kettles..