The Day I Went to School in the Snow

When I was home last night, I paused in the hallway between my parents’ kitchen and dining room to read an old article framed on the wall.

A long time ago in a land far, far away called Virginia, there was a big snowfall. It was so big that we were out of school for at least a week, maybe more. I was in high school, my sister was in middle school, and my brother was in elementary school.

I think my mom got a little stir-crazy during that time, because after a few days, she did two things:

1. She decided to make us go outside for a day of homeschool in the snow.
2. She called the local newspaper to report on her idea.

Lo and behold, the newspaper had nothing else to report on that day, so a reporter showed up with a cameraman to watch us “learn.” And the article was on the front page of the Virginia section! This was somehow big news.

In the photo you can see me timing my brother as he sleds about 10 feet, followed by some sort of elaborate calculation in the snow (I think we were determining his velocity).

My sister, a freshman in high school at the time, was too mortified to go outside while any of this was happening. I thought it was funny, and my brother just likes the snow.

If you can read the text in the article, it almost reads like a too-good-to-be-true article in The Onion. For example, my brother says that at first he thought Mom was joking. “But a half hour after breakfast, work began. I had to make a snowman.”

I know that my mom treasures this day and the story. As dorky as the whole thing was, I love that the newspaper actually showed up to validate Mom’s idea.