A Snow Day

     I have always loved snow and looked forward to snowfalls.  I assume those feelings have something to do with the “snow days” I experienced when I was a kid.  

    I grew up in Southern Indiana, where we didn’t get a lot of snow during the winter.  We would get maybe five of six snowfalls, a few of which dumped enough of the white stuff on the ground (and roads) to bring things to a halt.  When that happened, a “Snow Day” was declared by the School Board.  That meant that the school buses didn’t run, and schools were open only for those kids that could get there. 

    Since we relied on the school bus, we didn’t have to go to school, and with all that fresh snow on the ground, we would bundle up in our warm winter boots, gloves, coats, and hats and pull our sleds over to nearby Clearcrest Country Club, to spend hours zooming down the best hills around.  Being a golf course, the snowy fairway hills were bare of trees, but outlined with small groves of tall pine trees along the edges. 

    On one particular snow day when I was in the sixth grade, a group of all my neighborhood friends headed for the golf course with our sleds.  After many of runs straight down the best hill at top speeds, we got bored and sought more adventurous runs.  We continued to start down the hill from the top, but then mid-slope, we would swerve to the left, over toward the fringed edge of the grove, where we began weaving back and forth between the scattered trees on its edge.  It was probably dangerous, but we found it exciting fun.

    The next day when the snow day ended, we were anxious to get back to school to tell our friends and  brag about the exciting day we had sledding.  However our sledding stories fell flat when we heard the much better stories told by those kids who had made it to school on the snow day.  Since there were so few kids that had come to school, instead of having to go to their regular classes, they were allowed to go down to the gym and play basketball all day.

    I was green with envy, having missed the fun of getting to play basketball all day in the gym.  I made up my mind that on all of the upcoming snow days I would find someway to get to school, instead of staying at home.

    Following that, whenever we had a snow day, I would ride with my father when he drove to work, and get out at the school, so I could spend the day playing basketball.  Snow day, after snow day, I made sure I got to school, but every single time, instead of spending the day playing basketball, we had to spend the day in our regular classes.

    I was a fool clinging to the never occurring hoop dream, when I could have been outside at the golf course on my sled, zooming down the hills. 

View my paintings at:   davidmarchant2.ca