the rix mix

You need not be that old to recall when forecasting snow - especially coastal snow storms - was an even greater crapshoot, when a foot of snow could be a big surprise, & forecasters couldn't give a reliable estimate on the 11 o'clock news the night before, which was awful for kids. I remember walking to & from school in terrible snow conditions - not five miles uphill - just on days that would routinely be school snow days now. Without accurate short-term forecasting for some kinds of weather systems, the school authorities often waited until the last possible moment to make the decision, & if they made it wrong, the fire siren wasn't sounded at 7 am & you had to go to school at 8 or 8:30 although it was pretty obvious by then it should've been a snow day. Roselle Park didn't bus students, our convenience & safety weren't even part of the snow day equation. They knew we could get there & home. No kid was farther than ten minutes walk from a grammar school or twenty from the high school. It all depended on enough teachers making it to work. The rare snow-shortened day was also for the teachers. The kids had snowball fights outside the schools or crowded into corner stores. The whole town was basically our yard.

Labels: weather