Snow Stories

[first in a series]
So yesterday the DC region braced itself for impact. In the end, we got a little push from Mother Nature, but nothing like the pummeling we saw last winter. I was reminded again yesterday about how Washington DC is really a Southern city when in comes to wintry weather. Before a flake had fallen from the sky, LBA's school district (along with about half a dozen others in the region) had decided to close schools two hours early. Many of them (including LBA's) opened two hours late this morning. This of course meant I had to leave the office early yesterday and came in late this morning. Now I have a very understanding supervisor, so that wasn't an issue - but she and I had a conversation about the "freakout" that occurs every time a little snow is forecast for the area (she's from the Chicago area).

As my faithful readers know, I grew up on Long Island in New York State. For years, as a school-age child, I would go to sleep the night before school as a snow storm would bear down on the island. In most cases, I went to school the next morning - at the regular time, mind you. I didn't learn about "delayed openings" until I became a teacher. Living on the island (surrounded on three sides by water) our snow totals were almost always less than "North and West" of the [New York] city, which typically got more snow. We had to have a pretty good snowfall (in excess of 6 inches) for school to be canceled. I recall one morning that it had been announced that school had been canceled and I decided to go out and make some money shoveling. While out, the call was reversed and the buses started to roll. I hid behind a client's garage. Yes, well, that's water under the bridge. My mother didn't make me go to school when I came home.

One of the darkest days of my schooling years was when we learned we were getting a new superintendent in our school district. Dr. Philip E. Tieman was from Buffalo (specifically Tonawanda) - well North and West of the city. Students in our district bemoaned the hiring, fearing that snow days would cease to happen. Hey, if this guy could see out his second story window, surely we could get to school, right? Well, we still got snow days, but I sure there were fewer than before.

Now I understand the rationale for closing school early or calling for a delayed opening, really I do. No superintendent wants to be in charge when some high school student wraps their car around a phone pole on the way home or to school. But it would be nice if that decision were based on some tangible evidence. School did not have to close early yesterday - cancel all after school activities? sure - the difference between 1:00 and 3:00 yesterday saw nothing threatening coming from the sky. I'll even give them the delayed opening this morning. It took some time to get the roads cleared overnight - but I was convinced when I went to bed last night that school was going to be canceled this morning. I got lucky.

You may recall in 2009, President Obama called Washington out, labeling the city's residents "weather wimps" based on some ice that had closed Sidwell Friends, where his daughters go to school. Now when the President of the United States tells you to suck it up on camera, wouldn't you begin to rethink your whole closing policy? Of course, there was last year's winter - the likes of which will probably not be seen here for a long time - but we still need to adapt to the region's weather patterns.

We are only in mid-January. We have all of February left to go. And as my mother always used to say, make sure you got her gift in time for her birthday on March 22, because there would likely be snow.