Whispering Smith Column published in the Littlehampton Gazette March 8th.2018

Hold the front page, breaking news, spoiler alert… Snow is white, it’s cold and the wind blows it around a lot. It can cause a load of problems and it usually comes in the wintertime and it came to Littlehampton, briefly… Every news bulletin featured snow scenes, gritting lorries, traffic chaos and misery lightened here and there when we couch potatoes pitched in to help the stranded. The reporting of this wintertime phenomenon must have cost a fortune, sending television reporters scurrying out all over the countryside, themselves adding to the road problems with their vehicles and camera crews. The thing is, though, that their televisual masters did not send their brightest reporters out for this job. All dressed up in branded winter wear and silly hats and not a single one of them with smarts enough to get under cover and in out of the snow. They stood there before a sodden backdrop, snow covered heads and frowns showing just how hardy they were and how difficult is their job. Come on, guys, you could have stood under a tree, in a doorway or tucked yourselves away in a bus shelter and done your reporting from cover. We know what snow looks like from looking out of the window… it’s white stuff and it is a passing thing, here today and gone tomorrow.

Perhaps it should be a planning requirement that any new Littlehampton business if it be a place where the public gather outside such as pubs, cafes or betting shops, that provision of an ashtray or bin of sorts should be made compulsory. Just look at all of the cigarette ends littering the pavement outside of these establishments… Only last Saturday I counted 35 fag ends on the pavement outside of a Littlehampton High Street betting shop – it’s a rotten job but someone had to do it!

I was delighted with the interest and comments received regarding my ‘nostalgia’ article. As a brief interim addendum, sad that Lambertowie’s the little Polish cafe in Surrey Street came and went so quickly, it currently looks as if it is going to be a shop selling cardboard windows.

Photo: Bill and Ben sheltering from the snow…