A SNOW DAY

As the day is becoming grayer, there is talk of snow and sleet on the way. The strongest pull to veg back to the school days with the announcement of 'no school today' was the first thing to which my memory went back. However, no longer being a child, I can't just play, overturn chairs and grab blankets to make tunnels, or watch my cousin draw pictures of flatulence from a variety of foods. Even worse was when my sibs and I played 'school' on those days. Now how stupid could that have been? Why should that have been fun? I suppose because we could make the school be any way what we wanted it to be and because the three of us loved to learn. Of course we had no computers, few books, no encyclopedias, nor could we look to our busy parents for help.

Now I am grown, in fact...old. I'd love to play everyday but there are too many survival tasks that interfere. Survival tasks are too time consuming. To me they are the biggest waste of my time, yet they cannot be avoided...just as the term implies...and survive. As a child, day is not spent taking care of your teeth, hair, body, chores, clothing, housekeeping, and remembering all the dear friends and relatives on their birthdays, etc.

Part of being an old, grown up who has lived in the same house for 42 years is the extraordinary amount of the 'stuff', George Carlin talked ,that is accumulated. Adding to that, being a child survivor of the Great Depression, there is nothing you really want to throw out, either. Consequently, places to put things becomes more dear that office space in downtown Dallas and Manhattan. I buy all sorts of containers to put things in but then have no place to put the filled containers.

This is why, on the snow days I look around and think to myself, "What a great day to organize things and eliminate some of those piles covering every surface of my computer room." The task is so daunting, I think it is time to eat something, followed by the urge to hunker down with a good book...another commodity with which the house is overflowing. If you crave phone calls, just pick up a good book and you can be assured the phone will not stop ringing. A trip to the 'necessary' room. as it was called a few generations ago is of equal assurance.

My childhood experiences with snow did not include walking miles to school in the snow. However, since we had a bus, it was often late, so we made tunnels in the drifted snow. All in-snow activity was in non-waterproof clothing on those years. Snow suits were like sponges, soaking up all the wetness to be found as the snow melted from out body heat. Even without TV or computers, there was never a time that I was bored or without something I enjoyed doing.

While the day may be spent differently, I still get a thrill out of realizing I have a snow day, even though the radio didn't inform me.