The Dark is Rising, a drama by Susan Cooper for BBC World Service.
Episode 4, The Walker on the Way.
Will Stanton gazed out of the window of the bus?
He had spent most of the afternoon shopping for Christmas presents.
It was an annual ritual,
the day before Christmas Eve being the day when he was certain of having present money from his birthday.
This, however, was the first year he had gone alone.
He laid his head against the bus window.
More snow had come, they say.
As he heard this, Will glanced up at the grey sky.
Sixty-six years I lived in the Thames Valley and I never saw it snow like this.
Not before Christmas.
Never!
1947.
That was the year for snow.
My word it was.
Just higher than your head, all down Hunnicum Lake.
The lady with the string bag,
and the man who sat behind her might have gone on like this for the rest of the journey,
and perhaps they did, but...