Listening to all the weather reports yesterday caused me to flash back to childhood days when the news of a snow day was like receiving pennies from heaven.
Indeed, maybe that’s exactly what the snowflakes were.
The arrival of this wave of arctic air, in a way, wasn’t well-timed for the kiddos and school teachers. In fact, I saw some of them post, online, that a snow day is wasted if there is no school to cancel.
Somehow, ol’ Mother Nature just doesn’t plan it that way. About all this arctic blast did was leave ice on the streets, snow on rooftops and icicles drooping off the bottoms of cars and other structures. And, then, she gave everyone an extension for Tuesday!
She also sent my mind racing back to nights when kids got that glorious news. “No School Tomorrow!”
For one thing, we seemed to have more wintery winters then and that translated into more snowstorms. Ever hear of ‘The Blizzard of ’93?’ Last night, the meteorologists are talking about how low temperatures will be tonight and tomorrow night and how we haven’t seen temps like those for a decade or more.
When I was a little shaver, it was fairly routine at least once or twice a winter to see temps dip down near 0. With temperatures consistently below freezing, all it took was one bit of moisture to pass through town and, presto: snow day. And some of those would last for up to a week.
If the news about the snow-out came the night before, it was even better than great!
I remember I was mired in math homework, one time, and going no where fast. Just then, a report on the radio. A reprieve! The problems would wait for another day. Tomorrow, it seemed, would be spent in better ways…like sledding!
I remember another time – during one of those week-long white-outs, I was very sick. So was my mom. We both took turns taking care of each other. The ‘good’ news is I didn’t miss any school; the ‘bad’ news was I missed all the wintery fun with my friends.
But, if there was one snow day, there would surely be another. I remember in eighth and ninth grades, for example, that we missed up to a month of school because of frosty, frigid air. We missed so much, in fact, that the school system came up with creative ways to help us make up the deficit – Saturday school or an extra hour tacked on to each day for a few weeks.
We grumbled…but still…it was a good trade.
In my neighborhood, where there were approximately 20 kids my age, we found lots of ways to have fun:
- Organized snowball fights
- Building snow forts
- Sledding down the big hill
One time, we decided to recreate our version of ‘The Ice Bowl’ football game. Playing tackle football on a snowy field, sans pads, sounded like fun to a bunch of 10-year-olds. What we didn’t realize, though, is that snow melts on contact once the QB is sacked or the wide receiver dives for a catch. After a few rolls in the white stuff, you were just wet.
Wet clothes on a 30 degree day = less fun than imagined.
The good news is you were able to warm up at someone’s house with a nice cup of cocoa made by a sympathetic mom.
Ah, those were the days.
And, if we could manage to keep the mercury down in the teens and 20s, we might have a shot for an extended snow-out. again But, alas, I see the short-range forecast has temperatures back up in the 50s by Friday and you know what that means.
Another rainy weekend.
JG
Originally posted 1/6/2013
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