A Snow Day

 Originally Written Between 2013-2015                                                   

The snow started to fall – gently at first.  They were pretty fluffy flakes that didn’t stay on the ground for very long.  But, after an hour or so of falling ever so softly, the flakes got larger and swirled around the trees.  The forecast was for a “little bit of snow.”  But, as some – or maybe, most – predictions, one doesn’t always get what was expected.

The next morning, I looked out my bedroom window to see a winter wonderland!  Sparkly diamond-like snow covered the ground, trees, bushes, and houses.  Footprints from the paperboy were the only disruption to the beautiful landscape.  And, best of all….. it was still snowing!  And I knew what that meant.  SNOW DAY!

But first, we had to quickly check WCCO radio.  Back in the 1950’s, Boone and Erickson would give us the news as to whether or not my school was closed.  No TV announcements, no scrolls running across the bottom of the screen, and no email alerts or Twitter tweets.  Just WCCO.  As we turned on the radio and ate our breakfast, we made sure we were very quiet so we wouldn’t miss the big announcement.  Thank goodness, the list of closed schools was announced alphabetically – we only had to wait for the “F’s” for Forest Lake.  And, sure enough…. We got a snow day from school.  Which meant, of course, we got to play IN the snow.  Sledding?  Yes!  Skating? Yes! Making forts?  Yes! Snowball fights?  Yes!  And then, we got to go back into the house to drink hot chocolate.  

But, as soon as we got warmed up, we’d have to go back outside and shovel the driveway and the sidewalk.  No snow blowers in those days.  Just shovels.  They came in all sizes – for the right kind of snow.  What seemed like hours later, we were done.  I do have to admit that my brother, Steve, was expected to do more of the heavy shoveling than I, or my sister, Joanne.  I was really glad of that.

Fast forward to the ‘80’s on Jackson Street in Spring Lake Park.  The McGraw family was lucky enough to live on a street that was filled with kids.  The West side, also known as the Catholic side, had seven kids to our right and seven kids to our left.  At one end of the block, six more kids.  In addition to our four, heck, we had enough kids to play on quite a few basketball teams.  The East (or Lutheran) side of the block had a total of 15 kids.  Anyway, all the kids on the block played very well together.  They played baseball in the street for hours on end.  Our daughter, Rebecca, and her childhood best friend, Amber, were born 18 days apart.  You can see that we were a very close-knit neighborhood.  The mothers on the block not only had coffee gatherings every week, but, we held a yearly cookie exchange that still occurs to this day.  We lost our first member, Bea, at the age of 93.  

One thing that I think made our particular block of Jackson Street unique is the fact that out of 11 families, three were named Johnson.  And, something that probably could be mentioned in the Guinness World Book of Records, was the fact that three of the adults celebrated Halloween birthdays!  How many neighborhoods can claim that distinction?

But, I digress.  I should get back to my Snow Day story.  On this particular winter day in the early ‘80’s, we really didn’t get a whole lot of snow.  The ice came first and that was the problem.  No one could drive more than a few feet without fishtailing or landing in a ditch.  Walking down the driveway was impossible.  Needless to say, the buses could not pick up the children for school.  Therefore…… SNOW DAY!  Not only for the school kids – but many businesses and government offices closed, also.  

Which meant that the adults got to stay home, too.  This was unusual to have both mom and dad and children celebrating a Snow Day.  So, the Jackson Street residents decided to have a block party.  It didn’t take long for everyone to gather up our kids, snacks, games, hot chocolate and other “adult refreshments” and tromp through the snow to Judy and Dick’s home at the end of the block.  

The kids played downstairs with the air hockey table and other games.  The grown-up’s played cards and charades, told stories, laughed and ate and laughed some more.  It was like we were playing hooky.  We could have washed clothes, or cleaned the house, cooked a big meal, shoveled the driveway, napped, or performed other household chores.  But, we didn’t.  We played.  We connected with neighbors we didn’t see very often.  We were kids again – fully enjoying an unexpected and unique Snow Day.