snow days

so we FINALLY got a sizable snow - well sort of - overnight and the gang got a 2-hour delay from morning classes. not sure of the change in administration practices these days but it seems we've been having a more liberal class cancellation intervention than we used to. not that i necessarily think it's a bad idea, i just think it's a bit funny. "we used to walk to class in the snow, barefoot, for like four miles." nah i'm not that old but i guess i can remember when campus really never closed for any snow event - minus the blizzard of '93. now that was a monumental event because the university shut down for an entire week. luckily it happened on the weekend before spring break was to end, so many of the young 'uns were still at home or basking in the warm sun on the coasts of florida. yeah, they missed the three feet of snow...actually an event i'd rather not witness again anytime soon.

i got to thinking about how much i loved snow as a kid. at the slightest hint of snow, i would literally stay up hours upon hours waiting on the stuff to fall. although i do believe we had more snowfall when i was younger, it never seemed to be enough for me. our neighborhood was the most popular spot for sledding since we had the notorious hill (a town street actually) where everyone congregated for hours of sledding. the hill was just about 25 yards from our house and we thought we were the luckiest kids in town to be so close to all the action. the town maintenance department would actually bring a truck by with a flat board or even old car hood and drag it behind to pack the snow and ice for us instead of scraping the hill like the other town streets. now who does that these days? i dare say not many, if any, town administrator today would allow such a thing to happen.

someone would always have a 5-gallon drum barrel (i think that is what they were?) and have a fire blazing from it and of course there would be burning tires and such. we would sled, sled, and sled on our classy "flexible flyers" until our fingers and feet were so dang numb that we could hardly stay out any longer. and, never fail, mom would always have either piping hot chocolate or cold snow cream waiting for us when we decided to finally call it quits for the day.

those were truly memorable moments on snow days that one hopes never melt away...