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The First Big Snow Is Upon Us

by Will Truman · December 16, 2020

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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Saul Degraw says:

December 16, 2020 at 9:55 pm

East coasters now: It is a wonderful winter wonderland!

East coasters in a month: When will it be spring?Report
LeeEsq says:

December 16, 2020 at 10:24 pm

Snow day is such an important tradition that a friend form high school reported that her kid’s class ended early despite being on Zoom.Report
- Kazzy in reply to LeeEsq says:
  
  December 17, 2020 at 12:34 am
  
  There are lots of ways schools are handling the blizzard and lots of feelings as a result. For many schools, snow days are now (and may forever) be a thing of the past. Others feel like they’re an essential part of childhood and should be maintained regardless. Some schools can’t just flip to a remote day on short notice. Others are well positioned to do just that. Many public districts have the ability to end early or extend breaks later in the year if they don’t use snow days, so that is an added wrinkle.
  
  For me personally, my sons’ school district will treat tomorrow like a traditional Snow Day and have everyone on full remote for Friday (kids are typically in every other day for half a day). I heard behind-the-scenes from the principal that this likely WON’T be the policy going forward but they felt like a blizzard in December 2020 — on top of most of the schools experiencing at least one 2-week closure/remote period — warranted at least one traditional snow day.
  
  My girlfriend’s school closed today even though the snow didn’t start until the evening but went full remote. They’ll do the same tomorrow and likely Friday.
  
  My school has closed for tomorrow (we rarely have a snow day as we are a community based school in Manhattan) but WILL run remote classes for the subset of students already on full remote. So I will be teaching. SadEmoji!Report
  - fillyjonk in reply to Kazzy says:
    
    December 18, 2020 at 10:27 am
    
    I know some people have argued with me about snow days (which are a precious memory from my childhood): “What do kids with single parents who have to work do? What about families where they have no access to the outside?” and on, and on.
    
    I dunno. I remember snow days happily. I also remember a year or two when we had a real turkey of a superintendant whose goal was Zero Snow Days and we had the spectacle of small children trying to wade through 3′ of snow (this was northern Ohio in the 1970s).
    
    My mom was a stay-at-home mom back in those days so a snow day was a real snow day for us. In fact, when the weather was REALLY bad, my dad would get a call from his university’s phone tree that they were shut down and weren’t expecting faculty or admins to come in.
    
    I also remember the “Blizzard of ’78” pretty well, everything shut down then.Report
    - Michael Cain in reply to fillyjonk says:
      
      December 18, 2020 at 10:41 am
      
      When I was a kid in northwest Iowa, the new school superintendent lived three blocks from his office. His attitude was that if he could make it to his office, the kids could make it to school. We lived three-quarters of a mile away on the extreme north edge of town (where, as they say, the only things between you and the North Pole were a few strands of barbed wire). During one blizzard where he hadn’t ordered a snow day, my mom called and chewed him out. I understand that the polite version of it was, “Walk from the school to our house and back in the 30 mph wind and zero visibility, then tell me that kids are expected to make it.”
      
      We got a snow day when the next blizzard rolled through :^)Report
Damon says:

December 17, 2020 at 7:51 am

Jesus, what a bunch of idiots. Where was this filmed? Every year, on my commute, I’d find one winter morn, a pricey SUV slammed into a tree at the bottom of a beltway offramp hill. 4 wheel drive does not work effectively on ice, downhill, and at highway speed, or any combo of that. If only I could have found a way to monetize that situation, I’d be retired.Report