Do you remember when snow was still magical instead of a nuisance? Remember a time when people sang Frosty the Snowman and Winter Wonderland and actually dreamed and prayed it would snow for Christmas?
Of course, snowstorms caused problems even when I was a child (about a week after the last ice age ended). But the
y certainly did not merit the evening news. Usually, we simply woke up to the glorious sight of snow on the ground. In fact, heavy snowstorms were totally welcomed by a very large segment of the population , namely the students of the area.In Levittown, the Dads would block off the bottom of Mockorange Lane, where I lived in the first house. Mom and Mrs. James, next door, would make big pots of hot chocolate for all the kids on the street. The big brothers and a few fathers went to work p
ulling the littlest ones up the hill to line up for the thrilling ride down the steep hill. The rest of us had to haul our own sleds and then wait for our siblings to have their turns.When the little kids were sent in to bed, we had races and sometimes we could even talk our parents into taking a ride down the hill.We moved to Adams, MA when I was a freshman in high school and our house was only a block from Park Street, the thriving heart of "Downtown". I loved walking the snow lined street, all three blocks of it, to find exactly the right p
resents for everyone. I doubt any of us will forget the year we all pitched in to get Mom's Mother's ring at the jewelry store. She was so proud of that ring.More often, we found the perfect gift at Woolworth's. There we could find cute pot holders or Salt and Pepper shakers for Aunt Marge or hankies for Aunt Mary.
If it was snowing when we went shopping, so much the better. If it happened that we should have been in school but it was canceled for the day ...groovy!
Ah snow days , I even enjoyed them in Cheyenne when it was my kids glued to the radio in the early morning waiting, just waiting for their school to be announced.
There was a big problem in Cheyenne, however.For some reason known only to school administrators, the public schools which Jugglesorcerer and Lone Duck attended and the Catholic school, St. Mary's, that Sage Words and Skooba went to, did not always agree on how much snow was too much. Geezerguy was, in that life the news director at the local radio station. His children would all gather round the radio in their bathrobes to hear him read the list. They would hear their very own daddy on the air telling every one that two of them didn't have to go to school that day, but...the other school would be in session. Dad, of course, was safe at the station, while I had to try to convince them it wasn't his fault. Today we've been monitoring the Weather Channel. In Bellingham, Washington, where Skooba lives and in Rochester, New York home to Lone Duck, it's snowing like crazy; everything is closing.
But in Arizona and California the weather is fine. Sage Words and Jugglesorcerer don't get a snow day tomorrow. Some things never change, even when Dad isn't in charge!
See ya down the road,
Yarntangler
2 comments:
The weather is definitely weird. From Coffeyville, Kansas all the way to San Diego, California, the only snow I found was at the 4,000 foot level in the mountain passes in San Diego County.
I remember the storm of 1977, it was the year I graduated. I remember seeing the snow halfway up our living room window so we could barely see anything.. Of course the roads were impassable and school was closed! Even for my brother who is 5 1/2 years older than I am and attended a catholic school.
Those were the days. Fond memories, thanks Yarntangler, I haven't thought about those days for a long time.
What will you bring us tomorrow?
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