Martin Tideswell: Unbearable snow? No, lazy folk just need to 'grit' and bear it!

They were selling snow shovels in Asda: 'The shovels and sledges are selling fast so you'll have to be quick', warned the nice announcer lady over the PA system.

It seemed to me everyone in the store had been gripped by some sort of collective hysteria over the first proper snowfall of the winter.

Bear in mind I was in there under duress doing the weekly shop for our family of four plus a dog.

In stark contrast everyone else seemed to be a walking case study for Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic Channel.

A mere dusting of the white stuff had been enough to create panic-buying on a scale not seen since December 23 – with queues of shoppers snaking down the aisles from the check-outs.

Other supermarkets are, of course, available and a colleague of mine Tweeted a picture taken at a local Tesco where every loaf of bread and every bap and bun had vanished from the shelves.

This kind of behaviour is simply unfathomable to me and it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

I would guess the average house in North Staffordshire has enough food to see its occupants through any cold spell and yet, for some reason, a few snowflakes and madness sets in.

I mean, heaven forbid we have to make do with what's in the cupboards and the fridge.

Granted, the media has to take some responsibility for the universal weirdness.

'Arctic blast' type headlines dominate newspaper front pages while the TV news shows re-run after re-run of planes being cancelled at Heathrow Airport and some fella's car stuck in Durham.

'Why are we so bad at coping with the cold weather?' a number of Sentinel letter writers have asked before blaming the council/Government or Met Office.

The answer is multi-faceted but must have something to do with the fact that we rarely have really bad weather in this country.

When I say 'bad' I mean lots of snow or prolonged periods when the temperature drops to minus something-or-other.

When this does happen it seems to catch an awful lot of people by surprise.

Presumably they either haven't seen a weather forecast for several days or they don't have a window.

It wouldn't enter their heads to enjoy the picture postcard scene and make the best of it – not when there's a chance to moan and forget that they too were young once and that not everyone's as miserable and curmudgeonly as they are.

I reckon our inability to cope with frost, snow and ice also has a lot to do with the fact that many people are lazy, inconsiderate or downright stupid.

Occasionally all three.

On the internet our obsession with the weather plummeted to new depths locally as council gritting teams came in for a pasting on social media yet again. There was outrage that a certain street in Meir hadn't been gritted.

One poster disputed the city council's assertion that its gritters were even out on the streets.

She commented: "Well all I av seen is cars sliding around and ppl gettin stuck this city is a joke I avnt seen any gritters and I walked to work, waste of space as usual, think the gritters and the grit must all av harry potter invisibility cloaks."

(In English this means the lady in question didn't spot any gritters during her extensive survey of her walk-to-work route). Another poster, a mum-of-three, couldn't understand why the pavements weren't gritted too because of the risk the snow posed to her sprogs. I kid you not.

This, of course, all boils down to a woe-is-me, can't do anything for ourselves attitude which I find flabbergasting.

I refuse to believe people were so mollycoddled and useless 30 or 40 years ago when I was growing up. Nowadays it seems some people aren't happy unless every inch of the route between their front door and their local shop/pub/school/place of work (insert as appropriate) has been treated with rock salt and personally tested by their ward councillor (whom seven out of 10 couldn't be bothered to vote for).

To be honest, if the main roads are kept clear – and they usually are – then I'm happy. Having to take my time as I drive or walk along the side streets is no great inconvenience and using those yellow bins to sprinkle a bit of grit on my drive and that of my elderly neighbour is no real hardship.

Yes, we've definitely gone soft in recent years. Take schools, for example. Holden Lane High School only closed once in the winter during my five years there between 1983 and 1988 and that was because of a problem with the boiler.

Nowadays some schools close when there's even a threat of 'bad' weather or text working parents at lunchtime to tell them to come and collect their children.

Why? The pupils are already in the school so what does it matter what time they leave?

'Health and safety' posted a teacher friend of mine on Facebook before adding a smiley face with a wink and presumably heading off to the shed to dig out his sledge.

I love winter: A fresh blanket of snow is a beautiful sight to behold. What's more, I promise to love it even when I'm old and grey and all I can do is stare out at the children throwing snow balls. In fact, I'll be envious.

You see, it's not the cold weather that's unbearable – it's the way most of us react when we get some.