Guest Blog by Chris Gregoire “When I was a child, I had to walk to school through a blizzard, for three miles. There were no snow days. We didn’t have fancy global warming; it snowed every day. Uphill both ways. Barefoot.”
How many times have you heard stories like this? I remember every single snow day when I was a child, hearing some variation of this story, when I was dropped off at my grandfather’s house. Maybe without the “Global Warming” part; in the 80’s, it wasn’t really as big an issue. There was always an element of fantasy in these stories though, and a morsel of truth. I can just imagine the stories I’ll tell, when my 11 month old daughter reaches school age:
“Back when I was a child, we had to wait until there was snow on the ground before the schools would close. There’s no way a school would say they were closed the night before a storm. We didn’t have that much trust in weathermen. And if there was only an inch or two, school was still open. We used to have these things called ‘Delays’ which meant that the town would plow, and we would go into school a little late.”
I wonder if my daughter will look at me with the same, “Are you serious?” look I am sure I gave my grandfather.
Turn on the news every time a snowstorm hits a southern state, and watch the New England news stations poke fun at the inhabitants down there. And yet there was nothing on the news this morning other than the fact we were getting pummeled with a three inch snowstorm. At 6:30 this morning, Fox news had the totals up, and there were none higher than 2 inches. But it was all they would talk about last night on the 6, 10, and 11 o’clock news.
What happened to the “Tough New Englander”? Is that image no longer fitting? What do you think?
totally agree with you! what happened to the days when we could handle a little snow (because it was part of each winter and we were used to it). Crazy the way people freak out even over a slight snow flurry!
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that we're much better equipped to handle the weather - can you say all wheel drive, traction control, weather satellites that really do improve the accuracy of the forecasting - none of which were around when I was young. Of course we didn't have as many lawsuits either...
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail right on the head. It's amazing how stymied we get over a little weather. Two inches??? This is ridiculous. I know that cities like Worcester do have difficulty putting their snow someplace, and two way streets become one way streets in parts of crowded cities, but let's revisit snow delays a little more seriously instead of completely closing the schools snow days. After two hours, the traffic settles down and it's more easy to get through. Snow issues have changed since the tough New England days of yore, most parents have to make decisions about kids and jobs. What do employers think...better to have parents in for half a day (snow delay) or better to not have parents in at all, because if conscientious parents can't find (sometimes) last minute help, they have no choice but to choose calling in. That's an attribute that works both ways: employers want conscientious help and society wants/needs conscientious parents. So maybe New England living is still tough even though progress is supposed to make it easier.
ReplyDeleteToday 2 hour delay. It's too cold! Now, this is definitely New Englanders not acting too tough!
ReplyDeleteWhat your daughter really will find hard to believe is that the girls had to wear skirts to school. We could only wear pants if it got below a certain temperature (can't remember what that was). But, the pants could certainly not be jeans!!!!
ReplyDeleteBTW...from a former New Englander who is now is the Mid-West, I saw your temps this morning. Our schools would have closed so I think you guys must still be tough.
Great thoughts!
ReplyDelete@David - Better equipped - very true! You can't get a new car without vehicle stability control as of either this year or 2012.
@Keira - 2 hour delay because it's cold? Did the heater break over the weekend, and they need to get it going? That I could understand.
@Barbara - Thanks! Although I think tough is relative, that's all.
I was really impressed that there was no delay or cancellations this morning. Of course, it made my commute 2 hours long since there was all the extra traffic instead of half an hour. But at least we were all toughing it out!
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