Having a Snow Day without the Snow!

 Once upon a time, a Snow Day meant no school and time running around outside in the strange white stuff that appeared in our yard, on the sidewalk, all over the car and every twig and bush in sight.   Today is a Snow Day in our neck of the woods, only we have no snow.   We had a 2 % chance of it last night but the biggest thing was the possibility of ice or sleet.    So the powers that be, in their infinite wisdom, decided to cancel school since school busses and ice do not always get along.    Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that there would be no school today.   Virtual or otherwise.   

In  my childhood, there was nothing that compared to a Snow Day.  It was that reprieve that comes from above to give you unexpected freedom to sleep in (but we never did) or jump up, grab some toast and start planning for all the fun things we would do in the snow.   Choices seemed endless but they always included a snowball fight, building a snow man and occasionally we'd think we could build a snow fort.  We never had quite enough snow for that ambitious undertaking, but we always talked about it, planned it and got a thrill just thinking about it.   

So a Snow Day back then started with a weather report from our beloved weatherman at WLBT whose name was Woodie Assaf.   Woodie was the very first weatherman when that station went on the air back in the 50s and stayed on long enough to be the longest weatherman at one station in history.    He was beloved by so many, but no one loved him more than the kids in Jackson who were going to enjoy a day off from school and if we were really lucky, maybe two days!  

As our Snow Day went on, we played until we were worn to a nub and frozen like a Popsicle.   One year we ran out of gloves and resorted to using Daddy's socks for our hands.   We used up every pair of socks in the drawer and did not earn any brownie points with him for that stunt.   I am guessing we used up our own socks, too, so we must have had some kind of snow man building contest going on!   I recall mama putting a wooden drying rack over the floor furnace to dry out enough socks so we could all have socks the next day.  

After we were frozen to the marrow, we would reluctantly come inside to thaw out.    Invariably, one of us would decide we needed to cook something so out would come the Watkin's Cookbook.   That cookbook was a bit tattered and stained with cake batter, melted butter and who knows what else from years of cooking efforts by our mother and older sister, Charlotte.  Charlotte made all kinds of pie and goodies from that cookbook, including a killer Lemon Meringue Pie.    I am pretty sure the Mincemeat Pie she made every Christmas (for Daddy's benefit) was in that cookbook, too.    But pies and cakes were not what we were intending to make.    Our goal was a warm, sweet, delicious plate of Fudge.  

The recipe called for cocoa, sugar, butter, milk and a bit of salt.   And lots of cooking and stirring.   Cooking and Stirring.   A girl could get impatient from all the cooking and stirring and often did!   So we would do the ball test in a cup of cold water to see if it was ready.   And do it again and again.   The thing is, fudge is a finicky product and if you don't do everything just right, it will never set up.    And we knew that but eagerness to test our product would often get the best of us and we would add that final nub of butter, stir vigorously and then pour it onto a greased plate or platter.   Then the most difficult waiting happened.   It was supposed to harden.   

Supposed to harden being the operative word.   Many times it did.   But once in a while it just sat in a gooey puddle and we stared at it, hoping for a miracle.    One time we actually placed the plate outside in the snow  to see if that would hasten the process.   No luck.   It was still like fudge sauce for a sundae.   Our backdoor neighbor, Tommy, was there to help us eat it straight off the plate with spoons.   And no fudge ever tasted better than the kind we made on a Snow Day. 

And speaking of Tommy, I recall one year before we ever set foot out the door, I was admiring the glistening snow, thinking it looked like a virtual fairy land.   It was like something from another planet since snow was not an every year thing in Jackson, Mississippi.   So I was lost in a fantasy of the perfection of that snow covering every leaf and swig and not a single mark or footprint in our backyard.    Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Tommy trudging up to our backdoor, dragging his feet and totally destroying the perfection.    I am pretty sure I chewed him out for 5 minutes straight.  

Snow Days back in my childhood were special, magical.   My granddaughter, Luci, told me the same thing yesterday when she went our in their backyard to inspect the landscape and discovered the pond in the back was frozen over.   Not enough for skating, of course, but still enough to give it a surreal, magical look.   That was how she saw it --magical.  Some things never change.  When you see things that are new to you or not seen very often, they do take on magical qualities.  They even ran across two deer back there, scampering around in the snow.   Their Snow Day will be one of those things they remember forever.  

And so it is for me.   The memories of Snow Days past evoke happy memories of playing in the snow until exhaustion took over.   Making a pot of fudge that no matter how it turned out we declared to be the best we ever made.   Staring out a window onto a snow covered landscape and a dear childhood friend making his way to our door for some fun.    

The Snow Day of 2021 is not like the Snow Days so long ago.   There is no snow and we certainly are not making fudge or snow angels.    The important thing about this Snow Day is the memories it brought back.    The important thing about those memories is that along with the memory, it brings a flood of feelings of happiness, giddiness at the unexpected day off from school and all the possibilities that were given to us.   I hope I never forget how those days made me feel.   If you have memories like that, I hope you retain them all the days of your life for those are the kind of things we cherish most.   A day that lives on long after the day is gone.   A day to treasure and relive for the rest of our lives.    Happy Snow Day!