There may well be many of you Boomers (and others) out there who can't relate to today's memory. The Floridians and Los Angelenos will shake their heads quizzically, as will Minnesotans, but for different reasons. Bear with me.
Miami, Oklahoma (and my later homes in SW Missouri and NW Arkansas) had a temperate climate which allowed for hot summers and cold winters. The winters were quite mild compared to International Falls, Minnesota, but we got our share of frozen precipitation.
So a little bit of high pleasure I recall waking up to was discovering that the yard was white, so were the streets, and SCHOOL WAS CANCELED!
Mid-south towns like Miami were ill-equipped to deal with slippery streets. Since many winters would only manage a couple of two-inch snowfalls, city officials simply couldn't justify purchasing expensive street-clearing equipment. So a modest three-inch-depth might virtually paralyze traffic for the early part of a day.
School buses made their runs first thing in the morning, so it didn't take much snow for the school superintendent to call KGLC, the local radio station, as well as the Pittsburg, Kansas and Joplin, Missouri TV stations and give the word that would bring sheer ecstasy to kids all over town (and perhaps a slightly different emotion to their mothers).
While waking up to snow and getting the good news was intoxicating enough, it was even better if a heavy snow caused a cancellation the night before! I remember we got an unusual 12" snowfall about 1966 or so. I got to stay up late that night and sleep in on a Wednesday, in the middle of January! Life couldn't possibly get any better. That snow gave us the rest of the week off.
Okay, my memory is not so perfect that I recall the very days I missed. But it makes for a nice story flow, don't you think? ;-)
The neighborhood kids would converge some time in the morning, and the constructions and snowball fights would commence.
It's amazing what a group of kids with time and packable snow can accomplish. I remember my buddies and myself constructing some pretty bonzer forts. The snowball fights that would follow were legendary.
It was unusual to miss more than one day of school in Miami. Wear from traffic as well as the few trucks they had with plows would generally make school quite feasible the next day. And besides, you didn't want to miss TOO many days, or you might have to make them up at the end of the year. I remember going to school until early June one year, probably the one when we got the really bad storm.
Of course, you Minnesotans, Wisconsans, and fellow kids from the other northern states might well have missed fewer days than I did way down in Oklahoma, thanks to your much-more-fully-equipped snow clearing crews. A three inch snow canceling school? I wish!
Hey, things even out. I was scared witless of tornadoes as a kid, due to being located just a little ways from the heart of Tornado Alley. I DESERVED my occasional snow days. ;-)
Comments (4)
I'm a Chicagoan. I have 3 months of winter hell this year, and I can readily realate to the excitement of finding out school is cancelled.
We had announcements on the Ray rayner show and
WGN radio. The kids would watch Ray waiting for the magic words, and the P's would listen to the morning radio as they usually did getting ready for work. Why we were so happy for a day off when school itself was mostly a blast is beyond me, until I realize the potential in the phrase
"Snow day". If there was a Kid's dictionary, ti would read under
"SNOW DAY(Sno-Daae): A free day in which you can stay home from school and play video games, eat
fridge leftovers, hang out with buddies and have
snowball fights, and read comic books. Oh, and watch TV all day at the same time."
Is it any wonder that it was that great to get one? And we kids cared not about having to make
it up at the end of the term. That seemed like 10 years away, and we lived for the day anyway.
(...actually not a bad way for adults to live,
in a slightly modified way inclusive of responsiblilty. My feeling is those who are truly happy in life, whether young or old. can hone in on the present, and truly enjoy himself and others. Only someone with a young heart can chuck all his/her emotional baggage and truly hang loose.) And hang loose we did on Snow Days.
No structure, and kids ruled in a "Lord of the Flies" kind of way, at least for that day. All
the parks and streets of the town were yours to
play in, dream in, laugh in, and create in. That
24 hour day would go by like an eternity, until
reality would kick in the next day, and we would find ourselves in the structured world of school
again, maybe a bit easier to bear after we "ran"
things for one day, anyway, on our own.......
great days........
Posted by Scott | September 18, 2007 1:02 AM
Posted on September 18, 2007 01:02
During my Jr. High years in mid 60's Joplin my buddies and I would call the radio stations and pretend to be the superintendent.We would tell who ever answered that there would be no school tomorrow due to the snow.It never did work.We figured they must of had some kind of code.
Posted by Steven Koons | September 29, 2007 12:24 AM
Posted on September 29, 2007 00:24
As was typical of the 60s era, all the moms in the neighborhood were stay-at-home moms, so a SNOW DAY would blow the gaskets out of their orderly weekday routines. All us kids would be wild to do all manner of activities just because we were free from school for a day, and could. I remember one time, while Mom was in the living room tuned in to "As the World Turns," that I got the notion to dye Easter eggs-- never mind that it was January! So there I was with mugs and cups arranged on the kitchen table, a bowl full of eggs from the fridge (What? You have to boil them first?) and teetering on a stool to reach the box of food coloring, when Mom rushes in, "What are you doing?" "Oh, making some Easter eggs." "Why?" "Because it's a SNOW DAY, Mom!" I can still see the look of total resignation that crossed her face and put a slump to her shoulders!
Posted by NCeddie | November 23, 2008 5:41 AM
Posted on November 23, 2008 05:41
I walked to grade school and really don't remember to many days being cancelled. Later years when we took the bus, then the cancellations occured. But not as much as they do today? I do remember the blizzard we had in 66 and it was about three feet deep! I remember that well. As a child, any snowfall was a major thing! Two inches seemed like a lot to us! When we stayed home, we sleded, ate snow ice cream and made snowmen! I live in the DC,VA, MD area and when ever we get a dusting of snow, everone goes into complete panic! Toilet Paper, Milk and Bread! The stores are swamped! It's unreal!
Posted by Rivers End | September 13, 2009 10:16 PM
Posted on September 13, 2009 22:16