Snow Method To The Madness

As a Ferrerman with more than a few decades of winter under his belt, I know from cold. The other day I whipped out my Yahoo and it told me it was 3 degrees outside. Yikes! It's been colder than that before and, I had heard that it was -7 earlier in the morning. Yikes again! Well, we know the drill because the news drills us about severe weather every chance they get. So, stay inside unless you absolutely have to go somewhere and dress in layers, and close the schools-

Wat- what? Close the schools??? Why, when I was a young Ferrerman I walked through a foot of snow, uphill- both ways- to and from school!

And when I got there, it was closed.

Actually it did take a lot to close the schools. A lot of snow, that is. I don't remember that we ever had a day off for deadly cold but there was a few instances of heavy snow shutting us down and winter fun ensuing instead. I was just a kid then but I am gonna guess that snowplowing wasn't as efficient then as it might be now. Mom's all tended to be of the stay-at-home variety back then but teachers and staff might have had transportation issues, not living within walking distance of their work.

 Losing a couple of days in January won't dumb down the kids anymore than usual. It's not what kept me out of Harvard, which was my safety school anyways. And, the reality of closing school for a couple of awful days in January is that those couple of days can be made up in the generally snow-less months of June. Why have the young ones risk frostbite for more standardized testing? If you've been out in 0 degree weather, you know what I mean. Well, unless you are a fucking idiot.

Many people on the internet, particularly on Facebook, are fucking idiots. There was much gnashing of teeth over school closings. My teacher friends (lazy, union thugs that they are) were happy. The kids were happy too! Everybody was happy except the fucking whiners who think that, since they survived riding bikes without helmets and without seat belts in cars, everyone else can too.

You don't have to be 70 years old and a FOX noise devotee to have false memories of how tough but fair absolutely everything was ...back in the day...and to demand a return to that halcyon hardship of yesterday. I read of a mailman- an adult - who lamented the school closings as if he had stormed the beaches of Normandy as a child, in the snow- and LIKED IT! There's quite a difference in a 40 something man going out in inclement weather because he is paid to, and a 10 year old boy or girl because of school.

Any adult male or female is free to do any foolish thing they care with their own bodies in the winter. Yep- even in Obama's America. But, the kids? Let's err on the side of caution. You didn't really grow up in Sparta or the Old West. If things improved since you were young, be glad of that. Society has a vested interest in children so that they survive pensitive people looking back in lament, and enjoy their youth so that they let the next generation enjoy theirs.

And fellas, careful whipping your yahoos out. It's bone chilling cold!