Held tight in winter's grip or sent sliding in the snow
You know the weather is bad when a snow shovel succumbs to the slippery conditions and ends up in a ditch.
Or when a motorist must rely on brute force to dig a snow-stuck car free from the clutches of the white stuff.
Both these incidents were captured by the Gazette’s photographer in February and March, 1979.
The council vehicle came to grief on Follingsby Lane, near West Boldon, and had to be helped by a nearby quarry vehicle, while the Mini ground to a halt on Bents Park Road.
Elsewhere pedestrians can be seen out and about in the cold and snow in Bents Park, in 1994, and in King Street, in December 1950.