Saturday, January 30, 2010

Snow Day!

Remember those snow days when we were kids?

We didn't have the Weather Channel, Accu-Weather, or Doppler 5, 000,000 (yes, I know. I make it sound like these technological advances are reliable). We had a guy in a plaid jacket and seventies-wavy hair standing in front of a monochrome map with cardboard suns, clouds, H's and L's waving his hands as if conjuring.

And, he gazed hopefully into the camera. Hopeful that we'd believe his forecasts, and hopeful that he would be right. Most of the time he failed, becoming a weather seducer who couldn't deliver the goods.

So we'd hear snow and cross our fingers and pray, only to wake up to grey skies and brown lawns. But, every once in a while, the weatherman would call for empty skies, and we'd wake up to steadily falling snow. Snow on the cars, snow on the trees, snow on the lawns, and - most importantly - snow on the hilly roads the school buses had to navigate.

Snow day!

My Dad would growl about the need to shovel, and curse the passing plows who undid his hard work, but Mom understood. There was nothing more magical than an unexpected day with nowhere to go and no means to get there. Snowmen, snow angels, and Devereaux Hill sled runs awaited!

See, when you are used to the unrelenting brown and grey of the southeastern Pennsylvania winter, the white winterland truly is a wonder. So today, after the weather-scientists forecasted no precipitation, or a snow shower, or a dusting maybe, the snow began to fall. Steadily.

Ooops.

Oh.

It stopped.

No, now it's started again.

6 comments:

Lori Skoog said...

Hey Fe! I always loved having a snow day. Nostalgia! By the way, don't send us any.

CoyoteFe said...

C'mon Lorelei - you LOVE snow!

Anonymous said...
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Janie said...

I still feel the magic when I wake up to inches of new snow.
Hope you got a respectable amount, enough for a snow day, before it quit.
Cute photo. Fresh snow makes me feel like smiling.

Esther Garvi said...

We have so little snow here... So I'm all for it, the few times I get a chance to put my hands on it!

CoyoteFe said...

I agree Janie, but today I woke up to over 20 inches! Owww!

Esther - I feel ya, but I have a few extra truckloads I can shop to you!