“When I was a kid, I walked 10 miles to school in a blizzard, uphill- both ways!”

1967

1979

2015

Last week as the east coast got buried under mountains of snow, I watched the news with a mixture of sympathy and relief. And then the snow came. Chicago received its 5th largest snowfall on record – 19.3 inches. While it doesn’t compare to what’s been going on out east, getting 16.2 inches in one day was enough to shut down the city and surrounding areas.

Growing up in the Midwest winter was always a mixed bag. While we regularly got snow, we did not get school days off for snow. I have memories of my mom listening to the radio early in the morning after a night of steady snow. Us kids would be huddled around the tv, watching the news, waiting to hear our school district as part of the list of schools that were closed. It never happened. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating. It happened a few times but in all honesty from kindergarten through senior year of high school, I can count on one hand the number of snow days that we actually had. It was depressing as a kid. It seemed as if every school surrounding ours was off and we weren’t. And sometimes it was true! All I wanted was the surprise of an unexpected day off!

Then I had kids and the threat of snow days took on a different meaning. Instead of anticipation, I watched those school names scroll across the bottom of the screen and listened for the dreaded phone call announcing the close of school. Not only did it mess up my schedule, although the kids would love the free day, come the end of the school year when that day was tacked on, I would hear the complaints. Luckily for me (and not so much for them), they attended the same schools I did for K-8th grade, so they had very few snow days.

And as irony would have it, little CJ also attends school in the same district. But times have changed, along with administration, and he has had 3 weather related days off school in the past 4 weeks. His dad likes to boast about how when he was a kid he braved the elements (the comfort of my heated car dropping him off at the school entrance) and never had a day off. He likes to add that once I actually took him to school one of the only snow days and tried to make him go to school anyway!

It’s pretty to look at- for a few hours. Then the combination of the sun reflecting off the snow becomes blinding and gives me a headache. Before long, it will be a dirty slushy mess. I’m not a fan of winter- especially snow, can you tell? I will leave you with the view out my window and a quote that sums it up for me.

“A lot of people like snow.. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” – Carl Reiner

This post is also in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge prompt “Depth”