Ok, I admit that I can be a broken record about snow phobia in Virginia and the inability of drivers to cope with a single flake of the white stuff without creating piles of burning wrecks. However, my four children will be staying home today because of the snow. I had to actually go outside to see it but it is there — a dusting of the stuff but enough to shutdown one of the largest school districts in the country.
I honestly cannot remember school closings in Chicago growing up. I am sure that they happened (though University of Chicago had a reputation for never closing), but they were so few that they were not a big part of growing up. We did not have buses and walked to school regardless of the snow. (Ok, I know that sounds like your annoying parents of how tough life was growing up). More importantly, everyone learned to drive on the snow — a few basic rules like not to slam on the brakes on ice.
Fairfax is shellshocked after it decided not to even delay school recently in the midst of a snow storm with icy road. The kids and parents started a social media frenzy — making #closefcps the most popular hashtag of the day. The problem was not the snow but frantic, non-snow driving Virginia who seemed to rush into their cars to plow into ditches or each other in the annual Hunger Game carnage that is winter driving in McLean. I drove the kids and their friends to school and watched in amazement as a man in a luxury sedan did a 360 spins twice in the middle of the intersection. What was really impressive is that he stayed on his cell phone chatting as he spanned in circles next to my van.
A couple days later the school closed for cold temperatures (no snow). Now, it has closed due to a literal dusting of snow. No wonder this is a region of snow phobics. They are raised where the scene below requires all classes and programs to be cancelled for public safety.
From the Seattle TV station KING, channel 5.
I recall our favorite Winter Spectator Sport was for the kids to gather at the corner, and watch all the cars try to make it up the icy hill. A car would slowly drive down the hill, start to slide, recover, and then have no momentum to make it up the other side. You had to have just the right amount of speed, control the slide, and keep moving or you’d never make it, and be stuck at the bottom of the street.
“Ok, I admit that I can be a broken record about snow phobia in Virginia and the inability of drivers to cope with a single flake of the white stuff without creating piles of burning wrecks.”
Oh, Professor Turely, if you think that’s bad, you should visit CA during a “rainstorm”. The slightest gentle patter of rain causes widespread panic, “storm watch 2015”, and any moisture brings up the oil in the roads. We have the most potholed roads, terrible gridlock, and long commutes. So when we get rain, everyone still tailgates, and drives grumpy because they’re stuck in traffic. Again.
So a tiny sprinkle of rain is inevitably followed by our highways littered with wrecks.
PLUS since we have fires here every year, denuded hillsides become mudslides that wreck houses and block roads.
I remember when I lived in a couple of places in VA as a child, we didn’t have Snow Days unless the buses couldn’t get through. If the bus could make it, we were all going to school. What’s happened?
In February 2011, Chicago had a major snowstorm. However, most of the Chicagoans didn’t take the weather girls advice to stay home. (Actually, it was a man name Tom Skillings from channel WGN). Many drivers were trapped in their cars on their way home from work, and had to be rescued. Does anyone remember that event?
Fear Sells, and the MSM is peddling it constantly.
People have proven to be frightened by alleged global warming thanks to constant media bombardment. Well, the same folks have made us a country of whiney wimps, being Chicken Little’s when some snow hits. My mother was a tough as nails, growing up dirt poor in a family of 13 during the Depression. The Weather Channel turned her into a frightened little kitten when it snowed. Even in Wisconsin, where it is snowy and cold all winter, people freak out. Ever go to a grocery store before an approaching snowstorm? It’s like Thunderdome.
I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and they always closed for snow, That was in the 70s.
Be kind to Southerners. They truly don’t know how to drive in the snow, and they are not set up to handle the snow that falls such as ice trucks and plows.
But more importantly, Southerners can’t drive in the stuff. I’ve been in the Chicagoland area for 17 years, and it ain’t pretty. (For those of you in Chicago, I just tend to drive 10 mph. And annoy everyone).
You also described San Diego in the rain. You can be driving down the freeway in San Diego on a clear sunshiny day, throw a glass of water out the window, and cause a multi-car wreck.
This happens in some counties of Tennessee also. People here just lose their minds when they here the s word. All the bread and milk will be gone from the grocery stores and people forget (if they ever knew how in the first place) how to drive.
Tracie – first rain of the year everyone goes nuts in Phoenix because they have forgotten how to drive in the rain. Closing the schools today was an excuse to use up a ‘snow day.’
I feel your pain JT, nothing worse than having the kids home during a school week; especially if you work at home.
Pogo,
Funny post, thanks for the laugh!
Is there any ice or more to come. Surely the officials sent be that dumb?
Amateurs. Austin, Tx cancelled New Years fireworks upon the prediction of the possibility of freezing rain. (It never materialized.)
The superintendent announce they will make school counselors available to help the students deal with the snow trauma.
A candlelight vigil with signs reading Je suis Virginia is planned for the Potomac Yard Center tomorrow.
And I heard that the Falls Church News-Press plans to publish a cartoon mocking snow.
Keeping businesses open in winter is one of the few ways we let darwinism exist in the modern age.
The horror………The horror
Schools when I grew up did not close unless it was 40 below or it was snowing so hard you could not see you hand in front of your face. Geez, what wimps!!!! Talk about special snowflakes.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!
Funny. While schools in western NY will close occasionally, and they look for any opportunity to do so, the weather forecast usually has to be a winter storm warming or predicted wind chills below -10.
If western NY closed schools each time there was a dusting, schools would be closed more than they are open. Current temp is a clam -5 with a dusting of snow. Schools are open….to the annoyance of overpaid administrators and students alike.
My Dad grew up on the Canadian Prairie. I attended junior high school North of Edmonton Alberta. When the temp dropped to minus forty he would regale us with stories of his youth, walking ten miles to school through five feet of snow and sometimes five miles through ten feet of snow. I don’t recall anyone ever freezing to death.
I learned a long time ago (the blizzard of February 1979) that a significant portion of the population here simply cannot drive on snow and ice and don’t have the self-awareness to recognize that fact. Those who can drive on snow are simply targets for those who cannot.