#921 Snow days

Sledding into a world of awesome

Have you ever gone to school on a snow day? Tell me that’s not the worst.

Everyone else is outside having snowball fights and going sledding, and you’re stuck inside playing Battleship with the teacher because your parents couldn’t find a babysitter. The probability of you learning anything is zero and the school just transforms into a maze of barren, lonely hallways. It’s kind of a got a horror movie feel to it too, especially if you walk by a room full of kindergarteners and they all look up at you at the same time and slowly smile.

No, when it snows, you have to figure out a way to stay home and just have the time of your life. So let’s break it down a bit. Let’s talk about the three main types of snow days:

3. The Pre-planned Snow Day. Your town got hit by an ice storm and four-feet of heavy, packing snow. It’s going to take a couple of days to dig out, so somebody makes the call to cancel school in advance. This is definitely a good snow day, but it really zaps out all the anticipation. Worst of the three types.

2. The It’s Gonna Happen, I Can Just Feel It Snow Day. This is where the snow is hitting hard and heavy the night before. There are reports of black ice and cars in the ditch. People hunker down by the window with some hot cocoa and turn the radio on for weather updates. This is what’s known as a high-probability snow day. You’re almost positive it’s going to happen so you go to sleep excited about getting up the next morning. And really, the night before is almost as fun as the snow day itself, because you’re already planning the day in your head, putting off your homework, and calling your friends. Of course, once in a while the sun is mysteriously shining the next morning and the roads are clear, but this is very rare.

Nothing like a snow day to help those primal warrior-like defense mechanisms kick in for some fort-building

1. The Surprise Snow Day. Now this is it: The Mighty King Of The Snow Days. This is where nobody suspects a thing the night before. Just have some dinner, do some homework, brush some teeth. Yup, just a typical night around here. But then suddenly the next morning there’s a knock on the door and it’s your mom or dad telling you that … guess what, it’s a snow day! Now that’s a buzzy kid high right there. Homework already out of the way, no risk of missing anything important at school, just an all-out, lay back and relax full-on chill session with your friends. And the day really can’t disappoint, because there were no expectations to begin with! You wanna sit in the basement and play Contra all afternoon? No problem. Build a snowman and shovel the driveways for cash? Sign me up. Construct elaborate forts in preparation a massive snowball fight? I’m in. Just be a kid and love it lots.

And so, as its starts to get a bit chilly, let’s all cross our fingers and hope for a good snow day season. Let’s hope this isn’t one of those winters where we put up a goose egg on the snow day category. No, I say let’s break the record. Let’s go for four or five of the suckers. Hey, maybe six even. Let’s get El Nino in on it. Because ladies and gentlemen, say it with me, if there’s one thing we all know, it’s gotta be that a snow day … is a good day.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, here, and here

84 thoughts to “#921 Snow days”

  1. ‘Bout time you put up an entry on Snow Days. Love em.

    Another Awesome snow thing: A fresh blanket of snow that is untouched. No holes, no dog tracks, no yellow, just a smooth white cover on the ground.

  2. I’ve gone to school on snow days…every last one of them when I was in high school. You see, my dad was a teacher at my school, and, in his words: “If I can get to school, YOU can get to school.” So off I would trudge through the drifts, the sleet stinging my face, the ice clumping in my hair, to spend a boring day get hate stares from the other teachers (who could go home, if not for the *%&#’ing student who actually showed up).
    But yeah, I’m in therapy now, so I’m working through the pain of lost snow days.

    1. i know snow days come rare some times but when we have snow days theres nothing to do today i wolk up at 7 and thought i missed school but it had been a snow day, so i say you should bauther your parents and have fun in the sun

    2. Maybe this is just how Maine works, but on snow days, I thought NO ONE had to go to school…? If they cancel, why are teachers there?

  3. Over 600,000 hits…nicely done.

    I was explaining to some American colleagues about our version of Sarah Palin.

    When Rick Mercer goaded Sheila Copps into chucking a snowball at a billboard of Paul Martin it was the most quintessential Canadian moment since Tretiak was doing snow angels at Paul Henderson’s feet.

    1. hey its me agien and i want to tell you that u should allwayshave snow ball fights and make forts go sled rideing and just have fun so go have fun

  4. “playing battleship with the teacher”??? Nowadays kids are doing a lot more with the teacher if you catch my drift.

  5. Schools were open on snow days? In my town, you weren’t allowed to go to school on snow days! Yuck for all of you who had to go…

  6. Yeah, my school is in a small town, so half the students were from the town, and the other half got bused in from the surrounding rural areas. So most snow days, the buses were cancelled, but the town kids still had the “option” of going. This was only for high school. The elementary schools would close right up. So I did get snow days when I was a little kid, but rarely in high school.

  7. When I was in High School, our distric was required to make up any snow days at the end of the school year, so they would bring in enough students and keep them just long enough to have it count as a day of classes. This lead to classes that were more than 3/4 empty.
    There was a policy that nothing new could be taught if there were more than a certian number of student absent, so it was nothing but busy work to kill the time.
    The favored teachers were the ones that would just let you read or play cards or something, but there were some that felt the activities had to be somehow related to the class, which lead to weird things like French Scrabble games.
    A few times, the weather got worse once we were at the school, and there would be talk of having to spend the night there, but that never happend. I suspect because the staff didn’t like the idea of trying to supervise a bunch of kids all night.

  8. This blog is great – I heard about it on the local radio yesterday ! I love this about snow days …. I work for a school district and even as an adult, I look forward to hearing that my school is closed.

  9. Based on their proximity, it is important to note the differences between your activities on snow days, vs. sick days. Sick days were DEFINITELY Price is Right days (after which, I’d occassionally try watching a soap opera in the afternoon, because that’s all that was on, but this almost made me wish I was back at school). Snow days – All Fun, All the Time.

    The picture name for the Contra .jpg file should definitely be: “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.jpg”

  10. Snow days? What are those? Never had ’em. :(
    Grew up in a very small town back east where everyone and there neighbour had a snowmobile.

  11. I love snow days. . . the feeling of absolute freedom. Can’t stop smiling at even just the thought (or post) about snow days, thanks. =) Great pics too.

    So sorry Helene that you never experienced one. Everybody deserves a snow day and simply nothing can replace it (vacation/sick days just don’t have the same effect).

  12. Yes! I finally got to experience it when I moved to Rhode Island. One of the many reasons why I love the East Coast. I live in California now but I have fond memories of the snow (even though I don’t like it very much)…

  13. As a person from Maine, I can totally relate to this post…snow days were awesome! The only draw back in my state is that it snows so hard & heavy every winter, so it has to be BLIZZARD conditions for things to shut down and school to be canceled. In fact, when I was a kid, they made us play outside for recess when it was FREEZING out…literally, the state law was to not call off out door play/recess unless the temp. reached 10 BELOW…and schools really stuck to that! So if it was like -7…we were outside “playing” (more like hovering in the doorways begging to be let inside)….LOL this post brings back memories.

    KIA
    http://www.48longstems.com/

  14. There is one more, totally superior class of snow day:

    The snow day that falls upon the first day back from X-Mass break.

    We got TWO when I was in the 7th grade. It was like Jesus zoomed out of the heavens and graced us with 48 solid extra hours with which to enjoy our Xmas booty.

  15. Man, I never got to experiance snow days. Living in Florida however we got the occasional “hurricane day”. Those weren’t much fun because all the parents had turned into paranoid survivalists outlawing going outside and floating down the street in an intertube. Also, severe restrictions on opening the refridgerator were imposed lest the power go out and all the food spoil…

  16. I think the snow day that u say is the worst is actually the best as you reach drinking age. Its nice when you know the night before that you can get drunk because school is cancelled the next day. This is especially sweet on a thursday night during college when you have an early friday class that you have already skipped 5 times this semester and you can’t miss another without getting dropped.

  17. We had delay days when I was in high school. Wake up to the radio, listening to the closings and delays. Of course, I had to go to Valley Central, so we were the second to last on the list!

    I remember one day, the radio said we were having a one hour delay. So, I waited and got up an hour later, took my dog for his walk, shovelled the driveway, and walked down to the bus stop. I did not notice many cars going up and down the main drag, and the teachers were not heading to school. (My bus stop was on a highway). Finally, some very sweet lady asked me, “VC? Oh honey, there is another hour delay, go home before you freeze!”

    So I trudged back home, had to reshovel my driveway because the dear darling snowplow banked me in, and then watched tv to see if anything else was said. Back to the bus stop I went…..cars going past, not as many…..

    Mrs. Wave-wheel (very nice lady who used to wave to us using her steering wheel) stopped to tell me that school was closed……

  18. Well Im an eighth grader in Minnesota and we just had a snow day this past thursday. The first one in seven freaking years I might add. I nearly had mini heart attack. I hadn’t done my homework the night before and I had detention with my math teacher and when I wake up, I go straight down stairs and flip on the channel 11 news. I watch as fifty some schools pass by the bottom of the screen. My mom tells me to go get dressed because our school is never on there. I don’t move, because of that tiny ray of hope. And then BAM! My school appears on the bottom of the screen. I actually shrieked. I had to watch the School Warning three more times before I actually believed my eyes. And when it finally sank in I grinned, trudged back upstairs and went back to sleep for four hours. Ah, that was a great day. Built A snow fort with by Best Friend and had a massive one-on-one snowball fight. :)

  19. Doesn’t “snow day” mean that schools are closed and the teachers don’t have to come in to work? Maybe that’s just in my area or something…

  20. I walked to school for 8 years, and the most memorable snow day was in kindergarten 5. There was only myself, my sister, and my neighbour. We got to go to get the tray of juice ourselves :D a very proud moment for us as you were supposed to have an adult help you. And then our teacher let us go outside for recess. It was our very first recess ever! At my school you started to get your recesses in grade one, you were a big kid then. So we felt very priviledged that day. Not only did we get to get the juice ourselves but, we also got to play outside with the big kids, before anybody else in our class.

    The longest snow day was 1998….well that was the ice storm…. but it still counts. ;)

  21. heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy its a ssssssssssnnnnnnoooooowwwwwwwwww dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

  22. haha, you lucky things. ive never even seen the snow (an Australian on your site, guys). but our school choir is going to New Zealand in late June, so I’ll see it for a day :) In winter here the lowest it gets at school is prolly, 12 degrees Celsius. and even then we werent allowed in last year’s locker rooms. picture a group of year eight girls wearing jumpers and scarves huddled together, dodging leaks from an outdoor roof, turning our backs to the freezing rain and jumping over a big puddle on the pavement made by the water rushing out of the gutter pipe. that’s my last winter for you.

  23. only ever had 1 snow day in 8th grade because my Arizonan city wasn’t prepared for snow in the least and the “bridges” froze over. 1 snow plow in the entire city?!? hahahaa

  24. I must be insane. I LOVED going to school on snow days. People who came were in on a secret. I always had fun and it was more like a day to hang out at school with my friends. Without work. I don’t live close to any of them, so it was a nice time to get together with them.

  25. I live in Calgary, so I never get any snow days. The only time schools close down is when it’s -40 degrees celsius, with no wind chill. If’s it -40 WITH wind chill, OFF YOU GO TO SCHOOL. It sucks.

  26. Living in northern Ontario, snow days came often and were always lived to the fullest! I am determinded to live somewhere like a small town or rual area so when I have kids of my own they will have schools that close down and they will know the joys of a snow day! Nothing beats that freedom!

  27. Snow days were great, but being from a fairly mild climate, we didn’t get many. We did get lots of teacher strikes though, which were fun because they lasted longer. One even started while we were at school so we got to leave early. Yaaa!

  28. What a bunch of wimps! I grew up in Northwest Territories, Canada (near Alaska for you Americans) & if we closed the school everytime it snowed, we would never go to school! It was -40 for 6 months of the year! One day, we had a “Sun day” when we were let out early because it went up to 28 degrees celsius (82 degrees fahrenheit). Snow days are for wimps!

  29. Being born and raised in southern California, it totally sucks that I never got to experience this.

  30. sorry for being a negative nancy but when i got older and realized that they just added the days cancelled to the end of the year, i just ended up hating them

  31. best. days. ever. especially when the school cancels the night before, due to bad weather forecasts, and then its gorgeous out the next day. this becomes even better when your mom shakes you awake later than usual chiming, “Snow day today! breakfast is ready!” and the smell of cooking bacon permeates the room. bugger, now i miss high school. university can’t be cancelled…

  32. Snow days rock, unless the teachers are such s bunch of lazy bums that they call every day that receives even a half inch of snow a snow day, and then you end up having to make up those days at the end of the year.

  33. As any teacher will tell you, a snow day is the only day you really have off during the school year. We have had two so far this year, and I spent them both grading papers and working on plans.

  34. ***Those are some of the greatest photos and greatest memories too!***
    THANK YOU!!!

  35. I had two snow days total, in my entire K-12 schooling. One in college. That’s what I get for living in MN and going to college in WI. No delays or early releases ever due to severe storms, either, because the high school and middle school shared their buses with the 7 elementary schools in the district, and getting out early or starting late would screw up the bust company schedules. One day we had an epic storm hit midday, too. Kids were getting picked up in massive amounts over lunch, but we couldn’t close early, because the buses were otherwise occupied. It took 2 hours to get out of the parking lot at the end of the day, and another hour (normally a max of ten minutes) to get home because the roads were so bad. But we still had school the next day, even tho it continued snowing well into the night.

  36. wow, it’s really interesting and confusing going backwards on this site to check follow-up boxes, my head is spinning dizzy!

  37. Going to school at the Univ. of Georgia, snow days were incredible. First, all
    the trays would disappear from all the cafeterias. Then all the peppermint schnapps would disappear from all the liquor stores. I don’t remember what
    happened third.

  38. When I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a remark is added I get four emails with the identical comment. Is there any manner you may take away me from that service? Thanks!

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