Snow Day

Christmas holidays have arrived and so has the snow.  As Courtney and I watched the snow fly, we reflected that it’s too bad we weren’t in school because then we could have had a nice snow day.  Then again, we were in the middle of our Christmas break, so I guess we can’t really complain.  It did get us thinking to a time a just before Christmas two years ago.

It was my first year of teaching, and I was teaching grade 7 & 8 at Oxford.  I was living in St. George and was dating Courtney.  When you’re dating, you tend to be on your best behaviour, but it was during a particularly bad snow storm that Courtney’s dark side came out.  

Oxford is in a snowbelt.  Powerful storms from Georgian Bay sweep across Southwestern Ontario and dump piles of snow on the beleaguered people of Oxford County.  My first year teaching at Oxford seemed to be quite a severe winter.  

The storm hit and in the space of two weeks, we had five snow days.  The odd part was that in St. George, we only got a slight dusting of snow.  For all of those snow days, I would get a call early in the morning saying that school was cancelled because of white-out conditions.  I would look out of my bedroom window and see blue skies, rainbows, and butterflies.  By the fifth day, I was getting a little skeptical about how bad the snow in Oxford County could really be.  I turned the news on that evening and saw that the highway going through Oxford County was closed due to a pile up and white-out.  So maybe it was bad after all.

The first thing I would do after getting the phone call saying school was cancelled was to text Courtney the news.

Day One

Me: School is cancelled today.  Snowday!!!  :)

Courtney: Oh.  I have to work today.  : (

Day Two

Me: You’ll never believe it – another snowday!!! :^0

Courtney: WHAT!  I’m jealous! :' )
 

Day Three

Me: Snowday today – day number three!!!  Yippee!  : ^)

Courtney: I am going to drive down there and start clearing roads myself!  I’m very jealous! : ^[

 

Day Four

Me: You will never believe it!  Another snow day!

Courtney: Life is not fair. 

Day Five

Me: The storm is letting up, but the roads are a mess.  Snowday!  

Courtney: The only thing that will make me happy right now is an engagement ring!

Life did return to normal after than – for two days anyway, then we were off for two weeks of Christmas holidays.  Life was tough back then.

It was strange having five snow days right in a row when there was no snow to speak of where I was living at the time.  By day five I was getting a little cabin fevered.  I was beginning to feel like a castaway and was even starting to talk to a volleyball that was in the house. 

I did find a new favourite spot to go and mark during those snow days.  It was a little cafe in Paris (no not Paris, France – I didn’t have enough air miles for that) called the Brown Dog Cafe.  It was perched on the banks of the Grand River and was oozing coziness.  The coffee was amazing and they had a nice fireplace where I would sit beside to drink my coffee and tackle my stack of marking.

The Brown Dog Cafe, Paris ON

Courtney still does not really get snow days (unless we get a jumbo blizzard and the only way out of the house is through the attic) and so the next snow day I get may not excite Courtney too much.

Hot Dog!

Teachers usually begin the school day by putting out fires.  Students come off the bus and realize that something has been left at home.  This can be caused by forgetfulness or, more commonly, because the student had to rush out of the door because the bus was honking the horn and in their haste they forgot their homework or worse yet, their lunch.  The usual “good mornings” are dispensed with, and students get right down to business:

“I forgot my schoolbag!  Can I call my mom?”
 

“I forgot my project on the kitchen table!”
 

“I forgot my lunch!” 

I am generally understanding in this area as I have experienced first hand how frantic school mornings can be.  I had my fair share of rushed mornings, but I never made a habit of rushing around in the morning.  My sisters Alison and Becky on the other hand made a science of rushing around in the morning like two whirling dervishes.  Alison has shown me in particular, that when the bus is coming and you are not ready, homework is the last thing on your mind.

Practical jokes were a big part of our lives growing up.  Alison and I especially had an unofficial contest going to see who could pull off the best prank.  We became quite covert and clever – not to mention suspicious and paranoid.
 

I came home one day to find Alison sitting in the lazy-boy chair reading a Ted Dekker book with a funny little smirk on her face.  Her eyes furtively glanced up as I headed down the hallway to my bedroom.  I opened the door to my room and flipped on the light.  Suddenly the ceiling fan kicked into full gear and began to throw pennies everywhere.  I hit the dirt as these copper projectiles were thrown all over the room.  Alison had carefully placed hundreds of pennies on top of the ceiling fan blades and had set the ceiling fan on high.  When I walked back into the living room, Alison was still in the lazy-boy, but her smirk had blossomed into a full blown smile as she pretended to read.

I was not to be outdone though.  I racked my brain to find a way to pull a sneakier and better prank.  The next morning I found her Achilles heel – her frantic morning routine.  That night I found some hot dog buns and squished them into the toes of her shoes.  I knew that Alison and Becky always spent a lot of time in front of the mirror before school which meant that they were always sprinting to the bus stop.  

The next morning came, and I parked myself down on the lazy-boy and pretended to study.  I had a perfect vantage point of the front door where her shoes were waiting.  The far off sound of the school bus grew louder as it came nearer to the house.  The girls were in full panic mode as they desperately tried to get ready.  The finishing touches to the hair and make-up were made as Mom frantically urged the girls to get outside.  I felt my smirk grow into a grin as Alison reached for her shoes.  By this time the bus had pulled up and had sent out a warning honk.  Becky flew through the door in a blur while Alison tried to slip on her shoes.  
 

Her feet would not slip into her shoes though no matter how hard she tried to jam her feet in.  She reached inside one of her shoes and felt the hot dog bun.  The bus driver by this point was honking “hurry up” in Morse code.  Alison was like a frantic animal.  She stuffed her feet as best she could into her hot dog bun filled shoes and ran for the bus.  It wasn’t until she got to school that she could finally claw the hot dog buns out of her shoes. 

 It can easily be said that schoolwork was the last thing on Alison’s mind that morning. Alison would have had a good excuse for forgetting her homework on the kitchen table, though I doubt many teachers would have believed her.

Grade 7/8 - 2011

It has been an incredible year. I'm not sure who learnt more - myself or my students. It seemed like just yesterday that the students walked into the room for the first time. Thanksgiving and Christmas flew by. The March break was a flash. Our greatly anticipated class trip was a complete blur. Graduation is done, and the class party was tonight. I don't think there has ever been a time in my life where time has flown by so quickly. I have often thought of Isaac Watt's line from one of his hymns: "Time, like an ever rolling stream..."

God has been good. His mercies have truly been new every morning. I'll miss the students, and will always have a special memory for my 'first class'.