Snow Days

Snow days, the joy of every Northern child's winter. You'd lie in bed with the radio tuned to the local talk station, waiting while they droned on about storm snow totals and driving conditions, heart aflutter and pulse racing as they finally got to the school closing list.

'The list'. If we had known the magic code number to call in our school most of us would have been making up time in July, but as it was, we simply had to hope for the best. Or the worst, as in worst driving conditions, worst possible forecast, worst case scenario for getting kids to and from school safely, etc. The announcers would read 'the list', alphabetical of course, and it was either time to roll over and go back to sleep with a wildly joyous heart, or to listen for the next reading, hoping against hope that our school was just a little late calling this one in or the radio station messed up the order and we were just out of turn.

After the second 'no show' we'd angrily get dressed and bundle up against the frigid winds, trudging through mountains of snow to the bus stop firmly convinced that the officials at our school cared nothing for our safety and were only concerned with the lost state aid that a snow day might cause. We could not even find it in our hearts to applaud our luckier peers as they luxuriated in bed and lolled the day away while we hunkered down for our classes.

We did, however, feel ourselves superior to them in many ways because; a. we were the intrepid travelers braving the storm for our education and b. we would be at least one day smarter than all those dopes staying home playing video games, sipping hot chocolate and playing in the snow.

Sour grapes to be sure, but what else did we have?