by Kevin Mcfadden

Created on: January 06, 2009

Well, well, well, after a very nice January, February comes in like the proverbial lion. And by proverbial lion, I mean a cold SOB. And with that brings our first real snow of the season. And that means, hold on, our first inch and a half of snow, let's call everything off. Somewhere along the way, snow days got easier to score the day off of work/school. Now, please indulge me in a brief game of "Back when I was a kid"

Back when I was a kid, it could snow all night. It would be freezing, with white out conditions. It was always the same drill. Get up, look out the window, and guess how much snow had fallen by seeing how high it was against a car tire. I would be satisfied that it had snowed enough that we would have off of school. Bound out of my room, and head right to the transistor radio, to hear if they said our school was closed. It was the equivalent of watching the Lotto drawing for kids. You sit there, thinking "Please call my number. It's coming up! I feel good about it. Here we go." And more times than not, they would skip by my school. It felt as thought every school in the county had off except mine. Mumble "damn" under my breath, as my mom put plastic bags on my feet before putting them in my boots.

OK, so that's my recollection. I am sure it's a bit embellished. But what I know I am not embellishing is how snow days are handled nowadays. Kids have got it easy. I remember last year, they cancelled school the night before a predicted snow storm. Yea, that's right, on a guess that there might be some snow tomorrow, they cancelled school. Low and behold, everyone wakes up and it's sunny and 40. Just the mere prediction of snow sends hordes of weaker minded people scrambling to the supermarkets & convenience stores. It's like a 2 inch snow will somehow trap a family in the house for days on end. Milk will run dry. Bread will be scarce and traded like cigs in the neighborhood. What is wrong with these people? The snow is not going to be so bad that you are going to be snowed in for a week.

I think this fear of snow in the Philadelphia started with a sudden & vicious ice storm in 93, I believe it was. It wasn't really expected. Black ice was the buzz word created at this storm. The news was full of images of accidents on the roads. Cars were swerving into each other, off the road, over the dividers, bouncing off of parked cars, etc. Even at my young age, I realized that the weather wasn't so much to blames, as it was the drivers.Often, it's not

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