Remember being snowed in?

[Rose65]

I loved it as a child. It would start snowing and next morning you would wake to a white world, silent and beautiful. You would spring downstairs to find dad was digging a path through the snowdrift up against the front door.
It felt brilliant to be cosy indoors.

All fine if it was the weekend but - we were expected at school on Monday! I remember getting warmly wrapped up, satchel of books and trudging to the bus stop to wait 2 hours for a bus that did come. I arrived at school to find most others there and lessons took place. Afterwards same cold trip home, arriving at 7pm after waiting, frozen solid but none the worse .

Nobody ever got driven to school anyway, we walked or got the bus. Nobody expected to just stay home, no mobiles, no emails, just carry on.

In later years, same thing as a young woman going to work. You went. No excuse at all to be absent. Everyone made it somehow.

These days soon as the slightest chance of snow we have schools closed, trains stop - different times.

 

[MrPants]

 

[hollydolly]

WE had to go to school in Scotland regardless of how high the snow drifts were.. and we had to walk to school, trudging through the snowdrifts..alone, no parents took us..no school bus.....the school had no real heating, so our coats would still almost be as wet when it was home time as they were when we arrived in class..

everyone went to work... no-one had 'snow days' off...

 

[hollydolly]

 

[jujube]

The mornings of snow days: All of us in the kitchen, glued to the radio waiting for the school-closure announcements. Will we be closed? We hope so! (Meanwhile, Mom is standing at the stove silently praying, "No! No! No! Please, God, no snow day!"

Yay! All Wayne Township schools closed today! Mom droops.

We all want to go outside and play in the snow. A half-hour of stuffing kids into snowsuits, coats, leggings, socks, boots, hats, gloves, scarves ensues. Out the door we go. Fifteen minutes later: "I'm cold! My boots are leaking! I haffa go to the baffroom! I'm cold! She hit me wif a snowballlll! I'm cold!!! I'm hungry! She won't let me use the shovel! An hour of finding places to hang wet snowsuits, coats, leggings, hats, gloves, socks, boots, scarves.

Lunch. We're bored. Now we want to go out and play in the snow again. Mom sighs.

 

[helenbacque]

Hubby had snow blade for our Land Rover so he could plow our business parking lots. I remember being able to tell it had snowed during night before even opening my eyes .

 

[Rose65]

WE had to go to school in Scotland regardless of how high the snow drifts were.. and we had to walk to school, trudging through the snowdrifts..alone, no parents took us..no school bus.....the school had no real heating, so our coats would still almost be as wet when it was home time as they were when we arrived in class..

everyone went to work... no-one had 'snow days' off...

Oh yes the lack of heating! No central heating at home and really cold at school as the radiators never really warmed the huge classrooms. So we wore extra layers. My feet were always cold.

 

[officerripley]

What is this "snow" you speak of?

 

[hollydolly]

Oh yes the lack of heating! No central heating at home and really cold at school as the radiators never really warmed the huge classrooms. So we wore extra layers. My feet were always cold.

yes exactly... and when we got home we had have green chilblain ointment on our toes I can remember the awful smell of it but I can't remember the name..can you ?.. Our house only had one little electric bar fire in the livingroom to heat the whole house.. no double glazing, no insulation...frost and ice all inside the windows when we woke up in the morning...

 

[hollydolly]

What is this "snow" you speak of?

have you never actually been anywhere where there's snow ?... I had some friends who came over from South Africa a few winters ago... and they were like little kids playing in the snow. They'd never touched it, never felt it, never had any where they lived..

 

[Michael Z]

Well, we had snow days of no school in my era of the 60's. And I loved them, even though my sister and I had to shovel, which took a good 2 or 3 hours. But then I could work on projects - I remember making homemade glider planes from balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. And also a fleet of decorated paper air planes. And maybe put together my favorite 500 pc jigsaw puzzle. It seemed amazing to substitute all of this for school!

 

[hollydolly]

Well, we had snow days of no school in my era of the 60's. And I loved them, even though my sister and I had to shovel, which took a good 3 hours. But then I could work on projects - I remember making homemade glider planes from balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. And also a fleet of decorated paper air planes. And maybe put together my favorite 500 pc jigsaw puzzle. It seemed amazing to substitute all of this for school!

we all had to go to school regardless of how deep the snow was..... and had to walk 2 miles to get there .. only now in this modern time.. if there's one inch of snow..the schools close, and in this modern day rarely does nay child walk to school, and most school are well within one mile ...

 

[officerripley]

have you never actually been anywhere where there's snow ?... I had some friends who came over from South Africa a few winters ago... and they were like little kids playing in the snow. They'd never touched it, never felt it, never had any where they lived..

Nope, have always lived where it was a long drive to be in the snow so just got to play a little in it once as a kid. It did snow very slightly here back in the 80s but it melted within seconds after hitting the ground.

 

[Michael Z]

My mom, in the late 20's, had to walk to school from the farm. She told of how she would wear some primitive wooden skis if the snow was deep. No snow days of canceled school for her!

 

[Murrmurr]

When we lived up in the Sierra Mountains, the only times my kids had snow-days off from school was during a severe blizzard, or when the school's heating system broke down. In the couple of years we lived there, the kids only had 3 or 4 snow-days off from school.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Snow day 1967 where I lived.

 

[Rose65]

yes exactly... and when we got home we had have green chilblain ointment on our toes I can remember the awful smell of it but I can't remember the name..can you ?.. Our house only had one little electric bar fire in the livingroom to heat the whole house.. no double glazing, no insulation...frost and ice all inside the windows when we woke up in the morning...

Zam Buk? That seemed ever present in our house for all minor injuries.

 

[Rose65]

All these thoughts were triggered by Little house on the Prairie which I am loving reading. It takes me back to being a child, magic moments and pure enjoyment of life. I recommend it as an enchanting book for all ages.
Just reading about Christmas in their cosy log cabin, snowed in and happy with really so little.

 

[hollydolly]

Zam Buk? That seemed ever present in our house for all minor injuries.

no, not that.... was it snowfire..or something like that ?

 

[hollydolly]

All these thoughts were triggered by Little house on the Prairie which I am loving reading. It takes me back to being a child, magic moments and pure enjoyment of life. I recommend it as an enchanting book for all ages.
Just reading about Christmas in their cosy log cabin, snowed in and happy with really so little.

well most of us have seen Little house on the Prairie tv show for many years... written by Laura Ingals Wilder..

 

[Feelslikefar]

Most of my childhood was either living in the South or California, with 8 years in Hawaii.
First real extreme cold weather was the year I spent on one of the last Islands on the
Aleutians, in Alaska. (1974-1975)
We didn't get much snow, but the wind was aways howling.

No such thing as a 'snow day', you put your parka on and grabbed a rope to guide you to
your destination. (told they discontinued the ropes for safety reasons)

The Mission NEVER stopped!

 

[jujube]

Oh, man, when I'd come in with my hands and feet half frozen off and warmed them up. It was great for a bit and then the stinging and itching started in. It was like I was getting bitten by a thousand bees.

Now I know that it's bad to warm them up too fast, like putting them in hot water or near heat. Warming them up too fast irritates the nerves and causes the blood vessels to dilate too fast.

 

[Rose65]

well most of us have seen Little house on the Prairie tv show for many years... written by Laura Ingals Wilder..

The book is a joy. Full of information about how they survived, it was a very tough life full of relentless labour. But a family full of love and solid values.

 

[Pinky]

We couldn't take off our winter duds until we got the fire going in the stove. This was in rural Alberta. Our
"house" was an un-insulated chicken house separated into 3 rooms. There were no snow plows back then.
Dad used to keep the shovel inside the house, as the heavy snowfall blocked the front door, several feet high.
Using the outhouse was a fast endeavour.

 

[Old Salt]

Darn, we never had a snow day because we lived in a valley where we rarely got snow. It was always a strange sight to be in the rain, look up the mountain side and see the rain changing to snow at a certain height. My sister and I would get dressed warmly, climb the gentle slope of the hill until we reached the snow line, kept climbing a bit longer until the snow got really deep and then we would throw ourselves into those beautiful white, six foot high drifts of the precious stuff. I love snow to this day! I couldn't imagine ever living in a climate without it!