We had a snow day here in New York on Thursday. The city that never sleeps rarely shuts down, but the kids did get a day off from school. I took a PTO day from work and avoided a snowy, icy commute. It was nice to have a day at home, but I don’t have the enthusiasm for snow days that I did as a child.
Snow days were rare where we lived in Tennessee. We usually got ice storms and just a little snow, maybe twice in the winter. The state of the roads decided whether the school
buses could run. Every time the weather forecast called for sleet or snow, I did a “snow dance” in the living room in front of the TV. Waiting for the school bus on a country road in the dark and cold of winter was not my idea of fun, and I was thrilled whenever we didn’t have to go to school.
Snow days were actually cozy as long as the power didn’t go out. Ice on the trees often meant broken branches and downed power lines. We had a wood-burning stove in the garage for emergencies like that. Daddy made sure we always had a stack of wood split before winter came so we were prepared. Snow days were a little bit of a break for him when he was a school bus driver, although he always had to feed the cows in the winter, no matter what the weather.
I remember one storm where we were out of school for two or three days on account of the ice. When the roads began to clear, Daddy drove Mother and me up to my aunt and uncle’s house on the main road. Aunt Eunice had made her version of spaghetti for lunch. Friends of Italian descent, make sure you’re sitting down when you read this! It involved ground beef and canned tomatoes, and was cooked in a crock pot. That was the only spaghetti and meat sauce I ever had before I went to college. It was a little greasy–I guess that was the ground beef!
After lunch, the adults played Rook, a card game that doesn’t have face cards. They were brought up that normal playing cards were sinful, so Rook was the game of choice. They would laugh and joke, and I read a book.
Daddy had an inspiration one snow day when I was in high school. He took the hood off an old car which was no longer working, turned it upside down, and fixed it to the back of his tractor with a chain. “Baby doll, you want to ride?” he asked me. I enthusiastically jumped in, and he hauled me up and down the road on that car hood sled. My cousins Dale and Don asked to borrow it when we were done, and Daddy unhooked it from the tractor. They pushed it off a hill in their yard and jumped on board. It was impossible to steer, so they ran straight into a tree. One of them broke his arm–I think it was Don.
Share some memories of your snow days!
writinghersense 