Just a nice, generic snow picture. Didn’t actually end up snowing at my house the other day at all (though it did at higher elevations). Still, I was grateful for the school snow day.
There is something very beautiful about a snow day, especially if you learn about it right before you have to get ready for a day of substitute teaching.
I always longed for snow days when I was growing up- those days when we would see a few snowflakes and turn the radio to KAHI, the local Auburn station, and wait expectantly to see if there were any school closures (because how else would you know about school closures back in the day? There was no internet, no text messages, no iPhone alerts.) All my schools were at higher elevations than where I lived, so if there were flakes at my house, odds were good that the buses would have to put on chains, and nobody wanted to make our kind bus drivers do that.
The best snow days I remember? High school. Sophomore year. My geometry teacher always gave his classes a spring break “present”: a huge assignment where you had to draw a picture only using geometric principles. It was something like that anyway. This assignment had a reputation; all my older friends had hated it. They warned me about it. “Just wait until you have to do the picture!” they said. I was dreading it.
Except when it got to be the week before spring break for my class? A series of storms rolled in. It snowed up the hill where my school was, so there was no school Monday. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday. (Can you guess where this is going?) Or Thursday. And miraculously? None on Friday. The teacher hadn’t given us the assignment yet, so there was no way to work on it over spring break.
Hallelujah.
Best break ever.
Best snow days ever.
Had a pretty nice snow day last week, too.
When you are getting ready for a day of substitute teaching, and then you suddenly don’t have to go? You can take off your “trying to look professional so the seventh and eighth graders will respect me” outfit and put on sweats. You can empty your tea out of the to-go cup and put it in your favorite mug. There is even time for a third cup. You can stare out the window and watch the rain fall (because for some reason it is not snowing at your house yet, even though it is up the hill a little further) and not worry about putting on makeup. You can finally cut up that butternut squash and make that soup that you were hoping to make but didn’t have time for yesterday.
The calendar was clear of all other obligations and appointments, because it was a substitute teaching day. Now? It was a home day. Sure, it’s only a day, but what an unexpected gift. To be home instead of out where the world makes its demands. No need to be responsible and in charge today. No need to keep middle schoolers on task and happy. Just me in my house with my butternut squash, a pumpkin candle, Biscuit, Fat Cat, and a steady, drenching rain.
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Coming up on the 70th anniversary of the train “City of San Francisco” that got stuck for 3+ days near Yuba Gap. Unfortunately the passengers were not holed up in a cozy house but crammed into cold and smelly train cars eating canned food. Colfax made international news as the staging area for the rescue.
I, too, remember that famous week of snow days. It was 1982 (I think) and my daughter turned one. We drove in a blizzard to Auburn to get her a cake at Baskin Robbins because our power was out. It was also the week of the tragic avalanche in Alpine Meadows that killed seven people.
A few years before this, maybe about 1978, right after the snow day was called, my friend, Rick Brown, called and asked if I could get out my road. He suggested that we had a free day and should do something random like visit the state Capitol and see what was going on. Later in the afternoon we went to the Department of Education to see State Superintendent Wilson Riles, but he was too busy for us, even though in our youthful zeal, we thought he could learn something from a couple of real teachers.
Yes, snow days! Unexpected treats. Btw, I remember that spring of your sophomore years. Traditionally, I gave a writing assignment to my seniors over spring break. Give the long snow week, I phoned each household of my seniors and gave them the assignment. Yes, I was universally hated.
Oops. Should say “Given the long snow week…..” I failed.
What a treat!