Snow Day

 

Last Friday all the weather reporters mentioned that there would be a "dusting" of snow that evening. Nothing to worry about, just a dusting. When I walked out of the bowling alley around nine thirty that evening, the parking lot was covered in snow and flakes the size of quarters were falling thick and fast. So fast that by the time I cleared the last window on my car, the snow on the first window was already too thick to see out of. The drive home was a challenge because the city did not have the trucks out. They also heard that it would only be a "dusting". Western Avenue was slipperier than baby shit on glass. The truth is, weather forecasters are often guessing.

When I was a kid, weather forecasts were kind of like one of those magic eightball toys.

"Will is snow?"

"Reply hazy, try again later"

"Okay, will it snow tonight?"

"Signs point to a dusting, no worry"

We would go to bed at night and wake up in the morning to a winter wonderland of snow. So much that maybe school would be closed that day. Mom always had the radio tuned to WGN and we would wait around the kitchen table waiting to hear our school announced.

"...no school today for Tinley Park district 146... no school for Saint George Elementary School, Tinley Park..."

Joy would fill the kitchen and within five minutes all my brothers and sisters would have our boots on, coats, mittens, hats, snowsuits, and run out to play in that beautiful snow. The snow that was so bad we couldn't possibly go to school in it. But hell, snowball fights, snowmen, and snow forts, yes. Also, there was the added bonus of my getting a reprieve on that homework I was supposed to do.