In the winter of 1947, dressed in a my little short shorts, with knees all pink and perishing, I walked from Stoneleigh to school in Ewell a distance of a couple of miles or so - I survived.

In the winter of 1963 I was sent on a course to Winterbourne Gunner. I caught the milk train from Waterloo to Salisbury and then a taxi which, because of the snow drifts, had to give up half way. I walked the rest of the way - I survived.

In Germany, through the severe winters we had, especially the one in 1976, I dug out the car, drove to work (no 4-wheel drive then), went on exercise on the North German plain at minus 20 degrees, dug other peoples' cars out and helped shift deep drifts of snow from in front of houses and schools - I survived.

In 2018, with about 6 inches of snow in front of the house, I cleared the pathways, drove to Tesco (OK, I do have 4-wheel drive), did further shopping, dug logs out of my log pile for the fire and watched lots of others shivering and wondering whether they would survive. Schools closed, trains stopped running even without any snow, roads became impassable - I survived.

OK, so what went wrong with this generation? Had a cushy time for too long? No idea what to do in an emergency? Never learned to drive in snow and ice? Worried that school-children might actually touch the snow and get - what? Cold fingers? When the asteroid hits us, the next ice-age arrives too early or we have another world-war, what will you do? Die, I suppose. At least I know that I, my generation and my off-spring were far more tough than this lot of millennial snowflakes. I can rest easy that the Judges will still be here when all the others have collapsed into lumps of petrified jelly! JuneBridals evening garments of the formal style