Living in Connecticut, it’s not uncommon to spend the winter in a snowy haze, with the first flurries arriving in late October or early November and subsequent showers and storms keeping the ground covered in a white blanket until the first signs of spring appear in March.
How thick that blanket is varies every year; in ninth grade, I don’t recall there ever being more than six inches on the ground at any given time. On the other hand, the winters I was eleven and sixteen that amount was the bare minimum, with multiple stretches of constant snowfall and temperatures holding steady below freezing for months on end.
When murmurs of a coming snowstorm crept into the classroom, fervent hope for a snow day followed. At the very least, a delay or an early dismissal was hoped for. To increase the chances of these events, there were several rituals one could carry out – sleeping with your pajamas inside out, or with a wooden spoon beneath your pillow, or performing a ‘snow dance’; even older students might engage in these practices.
However, the closing of a school was subject to there being a sufficient amount of snow; a few inches would never have been enough to warrant such action. Rather, half a foot or more had to be expected and anything less would have been a disappointment.
Growing up this way, it still amazes me that here in Britain, just a few inches can shut down what seems like an entire nation. Granted, New York City didn’t exactly come through the recent Christmas blizzard with flying colours, but in some regions around the metropolitan area, nearly two feet of snow covered the ground. In contrast, it seems here as if one-tenth of that amount leads the nation to grind to a halt.
Maybe it’s better this way; people seem to appreciate snow more when they welcome less of it. Oxford’s idea of a blizzard is my hometown’s idea of a passing blip. But remembering the excitement caused by the flurries and flakes, and writing this now with the knowledge that at home the latest blizzard has already dropped 18 inches and shows no signs of slowing, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
