Snow (Ice) Day!

The school district cancelled school for today. An inch of ice'll do that in a place like Dallas where there isn't PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION and the ability to prepare the roadways isn't worth the financial commitment necessary.

But I remember the joy of being a kid and getting the snow day. It was pretty much irrelevant that you'd have to make it up in the spring when you could actually go out and do something on your day off because you knew when it was happening and could make plans.

We'd wake up early and listen to the radio hosts reel off the closings:

"Birmingham City Schools--CLOSED. Calhoun County--Closed. Cullman County--Closed...through the alphabet until you heard the magic words, "Jefferson County Schools--CLOSED." Yes!!!!

You'd kill time by hanging out until the sun came up and the phone would start ringing. "Meet us at Savoy street in an hour. And bring your sled!"

We were the only people that owned a real, live sled in our neighborhood. For some strange reason, my grandfather was a serious business traveller back before that became so common and had procured one on a trip up north somewhere. It wound up in our garage and stayed on a hook above the washer. Once or twice a year we'd fire it up.

Savoy Street was the novice hill. Pretty steep and long...but straight.

When we were 10 we cut through the woods to Cloudland Drive. Equally as steep (it was only about a block over) but it had two sharp turns and if you didn't make it you wound up in some old guy's yard and he'd sit on his porch and laugh at us if we didn't make it. We threw snowballs at him and his wife lectured him not to laugh at us.

Then, as teenagers, we'd make the long walk to Shenandoah. It's the kind of hill that you'd sit at the top and seriously think about whether or not you were going to actually do this. when we told our parents that's where we were headed, they actually paused and said, "Well, be VERY careful." They never had to tell us to watch for cars. If you've been to Birmingham, you know it's a city in a hilly forest, and no one drives there if you're in the southern suburbs and there's ice.

We'd hear rumors about how some kid two or three years ago had to go to the hospital for either...

a) a broken arm
b) a leg broken in three places with pins and screws (even if we weren't exactly sure what those were)
or
c) a cerebral hemorrage which they still haven't stopped and the kid is in a coma and will never live a normal life again.

...and, while no one could produce a name of that kid or even that kid's younger sibling, we were pretty sure it was true.

Successful negotiations of the hill once or twice then led to going "doubles"--which made you go faster--and even going "triples"--which never, to my knowledge was ever pulled off on Shenandoah because the top guy always rolled off before you really got going.

There were tons of snowball fights, too. Sometimes we'd find a stick for a bat and then have a pitcher who would try to bean us with the pitch.

And snow football...mostly "Kill The Man With The Ball" or it's cousin "Throw Behind"--which is "Kill The Man" with an end zone.

We even had a kid who moved from London that tried to get us to play snow soccer. We tried, but it wound up being "Kill The Man" with a soccer ball.

We played "army" with BB guns. That was really boring because your winter clothing prevented you from even feeling getting hit...which led to "Kill the Man" without any ball because of the arguments over whether or not you actually were hit with a BB, no matter how many times you pumped it, you couldn't penetrate winter clothes. And if you got the pellet gun down, your parents got wind of it.

My dad: "Brent, pellets are different than BB's. Somebody could really get hurt with one of those."

Me: "But, Dad, we're getting hurt in the flesh piles because of the arguments over who got hit..."

"No lip. No pellet guns. Get back outside. And scrape my windshield while you're out there."

You learned not to come back inside because some chore was sure to follow...so from sunup to sundown you stayed out.

And when you came in, your hands were frozen, your gloves were wet and your feet were cold and you were exhausted.

I can understand why we got jacked about snow days (even if our parents did or didn't...I'm never sure where they stood on them), but I can't understand why my kids got jacked last night when they saw on the news that school was closed today. It looks like it'll be a day of DVD watching, PS2 playing (Dance Dance Revolution), iPod updating and text messaging from what I can tell.

Thankfully, they've got a mom who can make some serious cookies and hot chocolate and keep a good fire going. Those are definitely cool things...but, happy snow (ice) day to our community, just the same. It's a nice break from the routine.