I Can Remember Fogs Like The One In Bleak House

[poliphilo]

There was icy slush on the windscreen this morning. It had no substance and the wipers shifted it. The temperature stood at one degree centigrade. Also there was mist. "Just like the good old days," I said. "No," said Ailz. "In the good old days it would have been black." Am I nostalgic for the industrial pollution of my youth? Yes, I suppose I am- just a bit.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I'm not!

But then I am the granddaughter of colliers...............

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't exactly want the pea-soupers back, but I'm glad to have experienced them.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I recall going to school carrying a torch because the gas lights scarcely penetrated the smog. It wasn't good for my brother's bronchitis though and I wouldn't want that kind of pollution back.

I've noticed that the neighbours don't worry about leaving their washing out in the rain. When I lived in Manchester as a child, it wasn't just a case of rushing out to retrieve the washing before it got wet, but if left out, it would come in wet and covered in black sooty streaks where the rain had washed soot out of the air.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It was the cement industry that did it around here and the smog was nothing like good for my grandfathers' black lung (aka pneumoconiosis- the miners' disease) which carried them both off eventually. :o(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My abiding memory is of being driven to school on a morning when the fog was so thick it was impossible to see more than a foot or two in any direction. It was as if the world had ended and we were the only sentient beings left- crawling through the void in our little pool of light.

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

It was 37C here in Melbourne, Australia today... what a difference!

Can't even imgine black mist... ugh!