Snow Day
It is snowing up and down the eastern half of the country this morning; as I type I can hear the precipitation—having changed over to rain in Brooklyn—adding a creme-brulee-like crust of ice to the overnight snowfall. Despite that, I brought the Tuned In Jrs. to school this morning; there was no snow day declared in New York City, and thanks to our damned efficient system of public transportation, there almost never is. (Because I am a cruel old man, I recently tortured the kids with my memory of the times in Michigan when a blizzard would cancel school for a solid week.)
I recently received a DVD set of The Complete Underdog Collection, and it reminded me that I have an entire category of shows from my childhood that I associate with snow days, and only with snow days. Underdog is one of them—the '60s cartoon about the canine superhero and perpetually imperiled Polly Purebred. I used to watch the reruns when school was cancelled for snow, and as far as I can remember, only when school was cancelled for snow. (I'm guessing this was a function of the time of day it aired in the Detroit area, as opposed to Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, which ran in the mornings.)
Sadly, today my kids have far more animation options on TV and DVD any given day, and frankly better ones. (Underdog doesn't really hold up as well now as, say, Rocky and Bullwinkle.) And yet they have fewer snow days. In honor of them, then, I'm watching some Underdog this morning:
What were your snow-day standbys?
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1
So wait... you tell your kids about week-long snow days, then take them to school in the snow, then proceed to have your own snow day without them? Are you sipping your hot chocolate right now, or are you waiting so you can finish the last sip right as you pick them up from school?
`
You're giving me such great ideas for parenthood
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2
Gomer Pyle was my snow day/sick day show of "choice". We truly live in a more enlightened age now.
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3
I vaguely remember watching Underdog at the baby-sitter's as a kid, which means it was either on snow days or during the summer. The university I work at now NEVER closes, but when I was teaching high school one of the best things about a snow day was a chance to curl up in front of a West Wing marathon.
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4
While I don't remember specific shows (besides Underdog...) what I do remember is savoring the ability to keep picking shows to watch all morning long (ok, I remember Price is Right at 11am) and then getting to about noon and seeing NOTHING kid-related and thinking how horrible that was. That was also about the time my mom kicked us outside to play so I'm guessing perhaps that was her Phil Donahue time or something.
Snowday here in Ohio today!
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5
I remember faking sick to stay home and watch the "Anne of Green Gables" and "Anne of Avonlea" miniseries in their entirety. Wow, I am a loser.
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6
@Dave: The kids pelted me in the back with snowballs the entire way to school. They can give it as well as they get it.
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7
No snow days growing up in Florida, but my school was all portable classrooms (glorified trailers) which meant that we had in-school raindays (when it was raining too hard to change classes)....and during those, we got a steady diet of "The Secret of Nimh" and "The Cat from Outer Space," which was pretty spectacular.
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8
Aah! Snow day - the two best words in the upper midwest vocabulary! I'm 33 and have to go work on snow days but still get a little giddy when I hear them.
We watched endless game shows in the morning (price is right, classic concentration are two I remember) and soap operas in the afternoon.
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9
A buddy of mine works at a nonprofit, and the general rule of thumb they use is if the schools close, work is closed. If work is closed, he'll go back to bed and email me when he wakes up around noon. Then I hate him.
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10
ahh i loved snowdays -- one of the benefits of growing up in the near-south. It snowed frequently enough to guarantee several snow days each year, but not so frequently that people failed to freak out and close everything down when snow appeared. I definitely agree on the Price is Right, but I also have memories of the Little Rascals and early Nickleodeon shows like You Can't do that on Television (alanis!) and Nick Rocks (no MTV in my household).
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11
I would usually just watch SportsCenter six or seven times in a row.
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12
No snow in the Equatorial climate where I grew up, but we do have a snow day today in the, um, East North Central U.S
.
Joining in the day's flow of Tuned In nostalgia, I'm surfing Youtube for clips of my favorite cartoon, 'Pinky and the Brain'. Narf!
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