Redartz: Greetings, everyone! As I'm writing this, our area (and much of the continental United States) is locked in an Arctic deep freeze. Although we haven't had any snow locally, the temperatures are hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. As I told my wife, we're getting the worst of Winter without the benefits (that is, no snow- yes, I love the white stuff).
Which brings us to today's topic: think back to those carefree (or less-careworn, at any rate) days of our youth. Remember listening to the radio in the morning to hear if the weather resulted in delay or cancellation of school? And the same sense of anticipation holds true in adulthood; the possibility of an unforeseen day off from work due to the weather!
The biggest snow day I ever experienced occurred due to the 'blizzard of '78'. Our town in central Indiana had about 16 inches of snow, drifting as high as our roof. The schools were closed for over a week. But as fate would have it, there was also a coal strike going on, which made it impossible to heat the schools. So, we were out of school for almost a month! But heavy snow and wind chill didn't stop me from pursuing my comics; within a few days of the blizzard I walked (quite a task, I'll admit) through drifts and ice all the way across town to get to the comic store. My parents thought I was nuts. They may have been right. 
Of course, there is another way to get a day off: the sick day. Not any fun, granted; yet still capable of prompting a few fond memories from youth. Way back when I was 9 years old, I came down with pneumonia. This meant two weeks off from school: and really, I didn't feel all that poorly. It was certainly comfortable enough to read some dinosaur books and comics, and spend the day on the couch under blankets, watching cartoons (especially Bugs Bunny) and game shows and sitcoms. All the while, being brought soup, crackers, ginger ale, and so on by my patient, saintly mother. Another standout memory from that episode: I recall one afternoon a school friend dropping off a stack of homework to catch up on, along with a pile of get-well cards: all the kids in class had made cards for me; it was a hugely touching gesture to a kid who wasn't what you'd call popular. So what memories do you have of weather related freedom? Were you unfortunate enough to have suffered sick days, but lucky enough to have found some enjoyment therein? Think back, and chew the fat...
14 comments:
In February 1978 I awoke on my 12th birthday to discover it had snowed heavily during the night. I lived in a village about 3 miles from my school and because of the snow the school bus never arrived so none of us went to school that day - and my birthday fell on a Friday that year so it was the start of a long weekend. What a great birthday present!
In January 1982 we were due to return to school after the Christmas holidays on Monday, January 11th but severe winter weather affected the whole of Britain and school didn't begin again till January 25th - the Christmas holiday had lasted more than a month! But living in a village had its' problems too as we were cut off - the nearest town was about 5 miles away but all the roads were impassable. Luckily my mother had a hoard of tinned food and boxes of dehydrated mashed-potato for just such an occasion.
As for sick days - in December 1974 I was feeling really unwell and the headmaster (principal), Mr Bowen, drove me home in his car. I missed the next few days of school but unfortunately I also missed my class Christmas party, bah!
I'll "see" your Blizzard of 78 and "raise" you the Blizzard of 67!!!
Couple times I remember being home sick and given a comic to fix me up. They are strong memories indeed.
My grandmother bought me a copy of Avengers 60 off the spinner. Alas, young Charlie could not understand the sub-plot of Yellow Jacket having killed Goliath when YJ was actually Goliath.
Also, my grandmother brought me a small stack from my cousin when I was ill in bed. I do recall reading the issues of the FF, probably around issue 80ish.
Given she had to take the city bus to get to our house in Gary, Indiana, and thus schlepped the comics whilst simultaneously no doubt dodging the lurking Paste Pot Pete who grew up with me, that was an admirable service she performed!
An odd memory is of my grandmother telling me how she was on the bus when she first heard Bobby Darin sing Mack the Knife. She, and others on the bus, thought those were really strange lyrics, as much as they liked the song, lol. Indeed the lyrics are "different."
Eventually, at the age of 68, my grandmother got her driver's license. But she planned all her routes so she would only make right-hand turns, just to be safe, lol.
In 1970s New York there was a daily afternoon film program on WABC called "The 4:30 Movie". They had a lot of crap flicks, but twice or so a year they would promote "Monster Week", which was complete catnip to this obsessed sci-fi and comic fan: Godzilla Week, Gamera Week, other cool stuff like War of the Gargantuas, etc.
The young Yoyo used to get bronchitis every February and be out of school for a week. When it coincided with Monster Week, it was simply Heaven, as I could watch Odd Couple and Happy Days reruns all early afternoon, and then settle in for some Japanese cinematic excellence. And all before dinner!
I miss that kid.
Yoyo
It's around 0 F here right now too, but it was -20 yesterday. The worst thing is, it rained on Tuesday, so there's a thin film of ice on everything and no chance of it melting anytime soon.
I'm from a very small town, and when I was a kid, the town kids were always expected to show up for school even if the buses weren't running. The principal hated cancelling school, so I think it only happened five or six times when I was a kid.
My car was encased in icy snow for a few days. I broke it up and dug it out a bit to let the forecasted rain and warmer temps do most of the work (it is great to have mass transit to count on and to be on break from school), but yesterday it rained all day, making lagoons of every driveway and depression in the blacktop - today those are all frozen. So my car (I have not gone out to look at it) is probably frozen in place.
Anyway, I too remember the blizzard of 78 and another in the early 80s, when I was a little older and wander the neighborhood climbing giant mountains of snow and pretending it were the craters of a distant planet, like Hoth.
Hey Yoyo! I too remember the 4:30 Movie. I didn't realize for many years that those movies were edited to hell in order to make them fit a 90 minute time-slot + commercials. I loved Planet of the Apes week (they'd do the films and then some episodes of the short-lived TV show), but didn't realize how much I was missing until years later when I could rent them on VHS.
Sick days were different. As long as I wasn't so sick that I had to go to the doctor, once I was about 9 or 10, my mom would let me stay home alone (she'd let the upstairs neighbor know to check in on me) - so assuming I was feeling better by midday - I'd spend the day watching The Price is Right and soap operas, and reading comics. :)
Man, back when I was growing up in a rural community about 15 m north of Salem, OR, we used to pray for snow days. Winters there were usually cold, miserable and wet, but it hardly ever snowed, and when it did it usually didn't stick. From kindergarten through grade 12, I think I can count the number of bona fide snow days, when we stayed home from school, on the fingers of one hand. Even if you add the 3-4 times school was called due to freezing rain and the ensuing black ice, it's still less than 10. And because we were so snow-starved, any days when enough fell to cover the ground and make driving dangerous, we kids spent most of the day outside having snowball fights, building snowmen, etc.
I never got sick much in school, with the exception of first and second grade, when I had chicken pox and then the mumps. Both of those experiences were pretty unpleasant, and I remember being relieved when I got better. And mostly I think I just spent the days either sleeping or watching TV.
Colin J- nothing like getting a free month off from school, eh? Hope you didn't get to fatigued with mashed potatoes...
Oh, sympathies to you for missing your class Christmas party. During the pneumonia bout I mentioned above, I missed our class party. And missed getting the giant peppermint sticks the school bus driver always gave out on the last day before Christmas break.
Charlie- you had a mighty cool Grandmother! "Mack the Knife"; great story,great song. Oh, and was there a blizzard in '67? Slipped my memory, kudos to your powers of recollection.
Yoyo- nice memories; funny how even a sick day can evoke nostalgia.
Mike W.- ooow, COLD! Twenty below is brutal. And as pleasant as snow can be, ice is a pain. We got hit with ice yesterday followed by three inches of snow, the first measurable snow of the winter here. Not enough to cancel the workday, though.
Dr. O- sympathies to you today as well; a frozen car is quite frustrating. I had to deal with that this morning. And thanks for sharing the story of your solo sick days. As long as you didn't feel to poorly, that would have been any kid's ideal scenario...
Edo- perhaps your school district was strict about avoiding snow days. Seemed like you could talk to folks from nearby towns back then, and one locale would be shut down while the neighboring town would be open and running. Incidentally, weather delays and closings are more frequent nowadays. In our area they close the schools for sufficiently cold weather; that never happened in my school days.
In spring 1968, in grade two, I had what they were calling "The Hong Kong Flu."
Forty years later I remember staying home for a particularly intense sick day, and I remember the only comic book ever that actually made me throw up.
My mom came home from the drug store, felt my forehead, took my temperature, and freaked right out. She made me drink cold ginger ale, take a bunch of children's aspirins, and put a cold wet cloth over my forehead while she walked around and fretted. She wanted me to sleep, but I picked up the comic she had bought for me, Fantastic Four #76, and tried to make sense of it.
Mom obviously didn't understand my comics habit at that tender age. At age eight I was buying Legion of Super-Heroes/Teen Titans/DC/Gold Key/Hanna Barbara/Alex Toth/Turok books with a dash of Classics Illustrated, Dennis the Menace and Treasure Chest.
I had sometimes looked at Marvel Comics at the corner store (Vicki's One Stop Shop on Burnaby's Capitol Hill) but had always shunned their obvious weirdness in favor of sensible, straightforward DC and Gold Keys.
We didn't have cable TV so at that point I had never seen the FF cartoons. I was confident that Herculoids and Johnny Quest were much better anyway.
So this afternoon, in my intense flu fever state, a cold wet cloth over my forehead, I lay on the couch and tried to make sense of the strange middle episode of an elaborate Jack Kirby cosmic epic they called Sub-Atomica.
The oddness of the characters and complexity of the back-story made my head swim, and Kirby's visceral dynamism really got to me.
It was particularly the surreal images of an utterly bizarre Silver Surfer character whizzing wildly through the oddly geometric weirdness of Sub-Space that triggered a sudden nausea, and I vomited violently all over the comic.
My mom took the fouled comic away. "No more 'world's greatest comic books' for you, young man, now, you SLEEP!"
The next comic she bought for me was a much more staid, sensible Classics Illustrated.
It was another four years later before I ever dared to pick up another Fantastic Four issue. I was then abruptly and immediately hooked, and soon started collecting all the Marvel titles.
Kirby is the beloved all-time King of All Comics, but he was a just little too much to handle for an 8-year-old with a high fever in 1968.
Thanks, Jack!
Oh and yeah, here in the Lower Mainland of BC we get way more rain than snow, so a no-school snow day (or days) was a tremendous blessing that did not come every year.
On Springer Street on the south side of Capitol Hill, half a block from our house, there was one very steep block that was always closed off at top and bottom because snow plows couldn't get up or down it. So every snow day afternoon was a meeting time there for toboggans, sleds, skis, and those "flying saucer" plastic things that were so popular then.
You just had to be a little careful at the bottom of Springer Hill, where it met Capitol Drive, which was still open to traffic rushing east and west.
Coming down the big hill on your sled or saucer you listened for the urgent call "Car! Car! C! A! R!," which basically meant leap for your life, you fool.
Van mark- great stories! That could start a whole new discussion: "comics that made you physically ill". Hope you enjoyed that story a bit more the second time around...
Those 'saucers you mentioned were a blast for sledding fun. Impossible to steer, though- I remember some wild crashes experienced while completely backwards...
I'll see your saucer sled and raise you a school cafeteria tray, lol. Miss the college days!
We really only had a couple of weather-related school closures when I was growing up in Far East Mississippi in the 70's/early 80's. Our winters were very mild for a nearly ten-year period.....I remember a snow when I was four or five that lasted a couple of days, then nothing else until I was fourteen, when we had this huge ice storm. We missed almost a week of school because hundreds of pine trees froze, bent, then snapped, taking power lines down in the process. I think we had a snow the next year that did about the same....we were out a couple of days. After that, we will usually have at least one winter weather occurrence a year, but in the meantime, we've learned how to prepare for them....clearing trees away from power lines, winterizing our houses (wrapping pipes and stuff, not the major things that some of y'all have to do every year). Since I work for the DOT, we are usually out and about during these storms, trying to clear roads as much as we can. To be honest, maybe about 15-20% of the folks around here really know how to drive in icy/snowy conditions, so it can be pretty dangerous to try to keep roads clear. Over the past few years, the state had bought some winter weather equipment to help us out, which usually means we won't have any more winter weather for a long time, but it beats having to sit in the back of a pickup truck dumping salt and sand on bridges.
I only had a couple of sick days during my school time. I had the chicken pox and missed a week of school, but read lots of comic books during my convalescence. In Junior High, I had the flu and missed almost two weeks of school, but I did plenty of reading during that time, too. My mom picked me up a few of the Marvel Comics B&W mags and I read them (Savage Sword of Conan, Marvel Preview - Man-God, Planet of the Apes, etc.....). Other than the occasional stomach virus, I was pretty fortunate.
I had pneumonia in Grade 7 and missed a couple of weeks of school. By far the greatest long-term effect was when I moved my brother's comic collection into my room, and it never left. At the time I probably had about four long boxes to his one, but that box he owned was what started my hobby! I reread his Jim Shooter Avengers with delight, and I believe I discovered the Silver Age fun of Strange Tales featuring Kirby Nick Fury and Ditko Dr. Strange during this period as well!
Good times!
-david p.
Graham- be careful out there, and thanks for helping keep those roads clear!
David p- your brother had good taste in reading. How did he feel his books wandering over to your room?
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