2.27.2008

A Nashville Snow Day

I have my alarm set to the radio option (mostly due to my post-traumatic stress disorder from years of being jolted awake by the EEEHRRR-EEEHRRR-EEEHRRR of an electronic buzzer. Make it stop…make it stop!)

So, like I was saying, my radio went off this morning and the first thing I heard was “all schools have been closed today”. And even though I am no longer in school and have not been in school for a very long time, my heart leaped with joy at those six little words.

Snow days are heaven-sent (um…literally) and as a kid, snow days were better than weekends, better than Presidents Day or any other scheduled school reprieve. The ecstatic glee of hearing those words on the radio at 6 o’clock in the morning cannot be compared with anything else in life. It’s like winning the kid lottery!

On any other school day I would be dragging my feet, sleepy and grumpy, but the minute the radio gave me the day off, I would be WIDE awake, tugging on my snowpants and swish-swishing downstairs to collect my sled.

Last night on my way home from French class, it was snowing. Not too hard. Coming down but not sticking to anything for very long, so despite the sleepy grin that spread across my face as I heard the magical snow day announcement, I was also kinda surprised. I shouldn’t have been though. After two years here, I should know better than to expect a traditional looking snow day.

I guarantee the Nashville kids were not hurriedly gathering their snow pants and sleds this morning. Primarily because they most likely do not even own snow pants and sleds, but even if they did, there is not even remotely enough snow to have a snowball fight, much less enough to build a fort or to go sledding. So, I’m sort of wondering what Nashville kids do on snow days…??



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

what pretty pictures

Anonymous said...

snow days were so rare growing up though!!!!!! Only in Erie can you have a school who's policy is to NOT have snow days. I remember that day in high school...ice storm, no water, no power, dangerous conditions, health warnings to stay in doors...but good ole' Harborcreek High School said "send your children to school! we don't care if they die getting here! or if they die staying here!" We all had to sit in the auditorium for 3.5 hours, in the dark with no heat...just to avoid a snow day (after 3.5 hours it was considered a full day or some such nonsense). These TN kiddies have it made!!

Anonymous said...

These photos are laughable....are they Erie in September? Heck, we would get more snow than this at Halloween time and have to wear the damn snowsuit UNDER our costumes. In Erie, you would still see people outside in shorts and no coats with this kind of weater :)

Remember when we were in high school and Governor Casey (I'm dating myself with that comment) cancelled school for the ENTIRE STATE for like a week because it was too cold? It was so cold that it was too cold to snow! At that time the temps were like -14 BEFORE the windchill and like -114 WITH the windchill (seriously, I'm not making that up).

Ah, those were the days. When you had to worry about kids dying from exposure while waiting for the school bus...

cathryn said...

D - I knew you would get a kick out of those pictures! If there is even the slightest bit of ice on the road here, people seriously freak out.

And kids here do not understand the complete and total bummer of having to wear a snowsuit under your Wonder Woman halloween costume!

Anonymous said...

Cathryn, you ran across my blog today and left a msg. about my beautiful pictures of my cacti and back yard. Thank you for the nice words. Of course I had to "check you out". When skimming some of your entries you made me miss my daughter and family. They live in Spring Hill, TN. They first moved to Columbia, then to Franklin, then to Spring Hill. My son-in-law works in Nashville. Small world, smaller all the time. Connie.......Down on the Farm

Anonymous said...

although I'm old I still enjoy a good snow blizzard on my days off from work. I love to go outside, knowing I can go in and get warm at any time, and just enjoy the white. If I'm lucky it's cold enough that little crystals cover the snow making it appear there are tiny diamonds covering the ground. It's so serene and beautiful. Then when darkness sets in just hunker down, read a good book, and watch thru the window as mother nature does her amazing thing.

Anonymous said...

WHITE HELL FIRE!!!