Snow days

Work was open again after yesterday's snow day, although chances are I could have made it to the office faster on Wednesday than I did today. Not many people were out and about yesterday. This morning, despite waiting until 10:20 a.m. to leave, I got to sit and creep along on the sloppy four lane city street before making it to the pristine interstate. It took longer to get to the highway than I spent on it, if that tells you anything.

Snow days are a rarity for me now, although they're just as treasured as when I was a kid. It feels like you got one over when a day of classes or work gets scrapped because of bad traveling conditions. All of a sudden the hours that belonged to someone else are yours again.

The night before a potential snow day was filled with the excitement of the next morning's good news of day free from school. (I should point out that I was one of those kids who liked school, but still, who doesn't enjoy a day off every now and then?) I'd wake up to the sound of my dad listening to the radio. Sometimes my brothers and I could hear the announced delays and closings from our beds, sometimes we couldn't. Mom or dad would inform us if school was still on, meaning we either had more time to sleep or needed to be up and about. We walked to elementary school, so there was no bus to get up early to catch.

What did we do on snow days? Honestly, I don't remember. I'm sure I did plenty of reading and probably some baking, whether with mom or at grandma's. I recall that we would put on snowsuits and play in the yard. What else would four boys do with all that snow beckoning? We didn't have any hills, but on some occasions dad would tie a sled to the back of a tractor (or maybe a pickup) at the grain elevator and drag us around. I'm sure today's experts would tsk-tsk at how unsafe it was, but no one ever got run over.

Living in a small town, it was impossible to be snowed in, at least as far as being cut off from getting the necessities. There was a grocery store a couple streets over that, even in the worst case scenario, could easily be reached on foot. All the other things that snow days could mean--dangerous travel, power outages, isolation--didn't really enter the equation. Whether a day or longer, snow days were like a cold vacation. I suppose that's why I remain eager to get one from time to time.