Snow Days As A Child

I want to say my childhood snow days were like the scene from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” when Lucy discovers Narnia.  That’s how I want to imagine it.  The beautiful, glittery flakes  falling.  The coniferous trees glistening with snow.  Just amazing.

But, they weren’t.  Sure, it looked like that outside, but I rarely got a snow day from school as a child.

I went to a school in a school district that NEVER cancelled school.  If school was cancelled, it was an act of someone of higher power.  I would wake up on days that it snowed a foot or two and watch the ticker at the bottom of the television screen waiting for “Shawnee Mission” to scroll past.  It never did.  It was heartbreaking.   You see all the surrounding school districts closed for their pupils to enjoy the snow.

Defeated, I would slowly get dressed, putting on a few extra layers, looking absolutely ridiculous.  I would eat breakfast even more slowly.  I would put my coat and gloves on even slower.  I would fear getting my hands wet under my gloves.  Since you know, snow = wet.  I would get in my grandma’s car.  She would drive my sister and me to school.   We would wait our turn to get out of car. Kids were moving a lot slower all bundled up.  Some of us would slip and slide on the sidewalk going into school.  Some would fall and we would pick ourselves up and finish walking in. (Looking around and making sure no one of importance actually saw you fall.) We would go to our classrooms and it would be school as normal.

Recess time though…that’s when we could enjoy the snow.  There was “No, it’s too cold to go outside” back then.  The only time we had indoor recess was for rain.  We would go outside in the large field and throw snow at each other.  We would climb up the large snow mounds that were made from clearing the parking lot out.  The teachers didn’t appreciate that one all too much.  We would swing.  We would run around like crazy children.  Sometimes when there was that much snow, we got extra recess!  That was okay in my book.

Here is the funny thing, everyone was always at school those days.  Everyone got to school on time.  The snow didn’t seem to be a hindrance.   Everyone just went along with it.