KDKA School Closings Mean Nothing to My Kids..
I’m not sure they understand the term “snow day,” unless their father and I have prattled on nostalgically about those magical free and unearned days off.
My kids don’t even know the name of their school district, something millions of kids in the rest of the country file away at young, young ages, in hopes that it will appear on the scrolling lists of school districts that will not open due to inclement weather.
Oh, my poor Southern Californians!
Now, my kids and I had plenty of time together during their long (long!) winter break, so the last thing I want is to be all up in each others’ stuff so soon again with no place to go. Snowed in moms and dads, I’m feeling for you.
But my cold heart does thaw a little when I think back on the bonus — sometimes double and once even triple! — of the blizzards of my Midwestern youth. Sheriff’s offices decided roads were impassible. A skittish superintendent deemed even drivable ones as unsafe for school buses. The best was when they made those calls the night before, school district closings announced in a scrolling ticker at the bottom of The Cosby Show.
Or in the morning, quietly tuning in K-101 FM, willing the DJ to read USD #450, USD #450, come on, say it! He said it, he said it!
Nope. None of that for my babes with their year-round tans and difficulties with below 70 temps. They are of the subset of American school children either residing in the southernmost points of the U.S. or in places so totally dependent on snow that to close schools would be the blackest eye for any mayor or school superintendent.
Woe is us. My kids have no idea that they could wake up one morning and be told “School’s closed, feel free to wear PJs all day!”
Meredith, a resident of Aspen, knows what I’m talking about. She wrote me this morning:At least her kids have the wherewithal to be livid. Mine? Not a clue. Not one, tiny snowflake of a clue!