Who's afraid of a bit of snow?

R

Rose65

Well-known Member
Location
United Kingdom
In my childhood I walked to school then later got the bus to big school. We walked alone or with our brothers and sisters or friends. Our parents wouldn't have dreamed of taking us in the car. That was only for dad and special occasions.
Things didn't just stop and nobody thought anything about the weather being cold and snowy in the winter - it was just normal.

I do not remember school ever being closed because of the weather, we all got there. At big school I often waited hours in freezing cold but the bus eventually did come. It was out of the question to NOT set off. Everyone got there and got on with the day and education was never interrupted.

What a carry on it is on these days!
 

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I remember the excitement of school being closed due to snow and cold so my friends and I could spend the day outside playing in the snow and cold. 😉🤭😂

Since the Covid pandemic we have fewer snow days and more remote learning days.

If we can make life better/safer for people and still get the job done, why not? 🤔
 
Aunt Bea said:
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I remember the excitement of school being closed due to snow and cold so my friends and I could spend the day outside playing in the snow and cold. 😉🤭😂

Since the Covid pandemic we have fewer snow days and more remote learning days.

If we can make life better/safer for people and still get the job done, why not? 🤔
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I don't recall ever having a "snow day" during my school years - from kindergarten even through grad school, actually. Yes, it could be really cold but we somehow survived ;). I feel that having to deal with a bit of adversity in childhood helped to create more resilient adults (vs. today's "snowflakes").
 
Sitting in the kitchen in our pajamas, listening to the radio announcing school snow closures...."The following schools will be closed today: Smith Township, Green Township, Jones Township....(WAIT FOR IT! WAIT FOR IT!) ....Wayne Township,..."

YES!!! HOORAY!!! (kids) NOOOOO!!! (poor Mom, who had a day ahead of her putting on and taking off coats, snowpants, hats, scarves, socks, boots, gloves and hearing "I'M COLD...I GOTTA GO POTTY....I'M COLD...I'M HUNGRY...I'M COLD...I GOTTA GO POTTY..I'M BORED!!@"
 
I do not recall a single snow day. If everything else failed it was cross country skies. Heat days - yes!

What gets me here in our part of Oklahoma is the lack of call it in between. The weather goes from one extreme to the other.
 
We had many days where there was too much snow to get the bus out but I never took the bus . We walked to school 4 miles in total. Going to high school required getting on a bus but I usually walked to school.

When there was 4 plus feet or freezing rain or hail, there was usually no school. If it’s too dangerous for buses to drive, it was too dangerous to go to school.
 
Rose65 said:
In my childhood I walked to school then later got the bus to big school. We walked alone or with our brothers and sisters or friends. Our parents wouldn't have dreamed of taking us in the car. That was only for dad and special occasions.
Things didn't just stop and nobody thought anything about the weather being cold and snowy in the winter - it was just normal.

I do not remember school ever being closed because of the weather, we all got there. At big school I often waited hours in freezing cold but the bus eventually did come. It was out of the question to NOT set off. Everyone got there and got on with the day and education was never interrupted.

What a carry on it is on these days!
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It’s not just getting kids to school. It’s getting the staff to school also. Teachers and other staff come from farther away than the local students. If they can’t get to the school, who will supervise the students? And it’s making sure the
parents can get home from their jobs after school is out.

Reality has changed.
 
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In winter we often had much snow and very low temperatures, but I can't remember a single day I didn't go to school. I used my bike the whole year.
 
My walk to public school here in west Toronto was about a mile, one way. In the 50's we kids walked home from school at noon, ate lunch at home, then walked back to school for 1 pm classes, then walked back home after 3.30 pm. So we walked a total of 6 miles a day, times 5 days a week, so at least 30 miles a week times 4 weeks in a month, equals 120 miles of walking to and from school per month, NOW add all the times we were active on Saturday and Sunday.

In my entire school experience, my Father NEVER ever drove me to school. Not once. Because he was a travelling fruit and produce buyer for one of the largest Canadian supermarket companies, and he was away on buying trips for weeks at a time, travelling across Canada and the USA by train. My Mum never wanted to learn to drive a car, so I walked or rode my bike everywhere.

Now I live just down the street from a Catholic elementary school in the middle of the city. Every morning the street is filled with cars and passenger vans, delivering fat little kids to school. The ones who don't arrive in cars, show up in school buses. I checked and found out that the "catchment area " for this school is 2 miles square.
 
Tommy said:
I don't recall ever having a "snow day" during my school years - from kindergarten even through grad school, actually. Yes, it could be really cold but we somehow survived ;). I feel that having to deal with a bit of adversity in childhood helped to create more resilient adults (vs. today's "snowflakes").
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I here ya!

It seems like every generation wants to make life better for their kids than it was for them and it seems like every generation complains about how soft and easy their kids lives are.

and the beat goes on… 😉🤭😂
 
I went to school everyday during the winter despite the weather but my parents and friends' parents never made us walk if it was sleeting out. We got rides and very grateful we were, That said, I hate snow.
 
They close the schools here a lot in the winter. I remember several times back in the 1960s that the school dismissed early because it started to snow. Fortunately, when I had to walk to school (kintergarden, 1st, 3rd & 4th grades), it was only over on the next block. Otherwise I rode a school bus because the school I attended for the other grades was about 2 miles away.
I think safety is uppermost on the minds of school administrations. They don't want to get blamed if a child gets hurt trying to make it home in snow or the bus has an accident because of slippery roads.
 
We walked to school..trudging through the snow in Scotland, every winter. Snow got in the tops of our wellies, and soaked our feet.. we all got chillblains...My mother would stand at the door and dole out a spoonful of Malt extract in every childs' mouth as we left..
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Scools never closed.. and in those days we had ancient old radiators for heating... and our coats would still be wet when it was going home time.

In our house we only ha one for of heating, the gas fire in the livingroom.. so it was very difficult to get our clothing dried after we'd walked home again in the snow..

Anyone driving us to school >..firrggittabboutit... ..never once were we driven to school. My God he would have thought we'd lost our minds if we'd ever even asked my father...
 
Reminds me that I worked as a Milk delivery girl between the age o 12 14.. in all weathers, including snow...I got up at 4am, and out on the round at 5a... our fingers froze to the bottle very foten, and of course milk on the doorstep for lng would burrt the top off..Most of my delivery route was 20 storey Flats.. so I was out of the cold for most f the time, but we still had 4 roads that were houses.. so it was absolutely horrible.. and sometimes the Milk float would go sliding off down the road... and we'd have to run after it hell for leather to stop it crashing and destorying 60 crates of milk


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Before the 4th grade I walked maybe 1 1/2 miles crossing two busy streets. There were no buses except the short bus for Special Ed, and I cannot think of any time my parents ever drove me.

Two weeks into 4th grade we moved. I walked just over a mile (no sidewalks out there) to the bus stop. The bus took us to school about 4 miles away but since it also picked up the older kids it was a long and circuitous journey that stopped at 4 different schools (including one parochial school). Again, no parents ever driving me. And sometimes I'd walk an extra 1/2 mile to the prior bus stop so that I'd be assured of a seat.

I can remember when the bus stop was on top of plowed-snow mountains well over 8 feet high even after we trampled-down a platform up there.

Halfway into the 6th grade we moved again, this time into the city. I walked almost 2 miles to school, no buses, no car rides.

For 10th to 12th grade I was bussed into the inner city "for integration." The bus stop was only 1/4 mile walk.

Sometimes the snow was pretty darned deep, and sometimes it was bitter cold. You just sucked it up and got yourself where you needed to go.

I'm pretty sure that just before starting Kindergarten my mother took me and my year-younger sister on a walk to see how to get to school. As far as I can remember that was the last time there was parental involvement. As younger siblings came along the "teaching" fell to us.

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debodun said:
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Not to rub it in but...The city of Toronto has a vast fleet of sidewalk snow plows that clear the public walkways . Special small cab equipped tractors, with a 4 foot angle plow blade, towing a small trailer that carries a mixture of sand and salt that is spread on the sidewalks. They operate from 9 pm to 6 am after a snow fall of more than 4 inches. The city also owns a fleet of about 400 heavy snow plow trucks and sanders/salters, plus they can call on about 300 private contractor trucks if needed.

With about 9000 miles of city streets and expressways to clear, Toronto has the equipment to deal with the winter weather conditions effectively.
 
jimintoronto said:
Not to rub it in but...The city of Toronto has a vast fleet of sidewalk snow plows that clear the public walkways . Special small cab equipped tractors, with a 4 foot angle plow blade, towing a small trailer that carries a mixture of sand and salt that is spread on the sidewalks. They operate from 9 pm to 6 am after a snow fall of more than 4 inches. The city also owns a fleet of about 400 heavy snow plow trucks and sanders/salters, plus they can call on about 300 private contractor trucks if needed.

With about 9000 miles of city streets and expressways to clear, Toronto has the equipment to deal with the winter weather conditions effectively.
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when I was just a kid, my relatives in Toronto, used to send photos of them with the snow right up to the eves on their house..seriously..I wish I had those photos to this day... but it;s true.... that was in the 60's..
 
The local DPW doesn't clear snow or ice from the public sidewalks. The local ordinance says that it's a homeowner's responsibility to keep the sidewalks in front of their property maintained. I have it a bit easier now since there's no sidewalks in my new neighborhood. Just a 1000 sq ft driveway which is even less to do than at my former home, but still as I get older....

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The City plows the sidewalks for the ‘main line’ school routes on school days.

That caused quite a flap amongst homeowners, having to shovel their own sidewalks and pay taxes for plowing the sidewalks of others.

The quality of the plowing isn’t very good and often results in damage to the sidewalks and lawns.

Still, it’s much better than having to walk in the street and I do appreciate it.
 

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