Reflections on snow days

     It snowed here in the south last week.  In anticipation of that event the schools and businesses were closed and people were sent home.  The governor even declared a state of emergency, advising motorists to stay off the roads unless travel was absolutely necessary.  Much joking went on, at least in my little corner of the world, about the extreme un-hardiness of southerners but it has set me thinking about the whole concept of snow days.
     The appeal of snow days seems to be the fact that they force people to slow down, take time off, and do something other than their normal daily activities.  Kids get to stay home from school, play games all day, maybe go sledding, spend the morning staying in bed, and otherwise not being in school.  Adults, when they are freed from the grind of the office get to over sleep without guilt, hangout online, and generally spend a day playing instead of earning their daily bread.  Snow days are special because they don't happen every day that is true (though if you ask southerners the consensus is that northerners have three a week in the wintertime.)  It is also true that they wouldn't stay special if one declared a day off every week but my question is, why wait for snow?  Why not schedule a snow day without the snow?
     When my kids were growing up they were homeschooled and the thought of not having a snow day in the winter was out of the realm of possibility for those who didn't homeschool their kids.  Little did they know.  We had snow days even when the public school kids were at their desks studying hard.  We had snow days in the summer if we so desired.  The secret ingredient was not the snow it was the switch from the norm and the everyday to the out of the ordinary and unusual.
     Even now, as I contemplate the school kids across the road trying to sled down a small hill barely covered in a light dusting of snow, my brother and his wife and children curled up by their fire sipping hot drinks and enjoying a rare interlude of family togetherness, I am inclined to take a day off from the ordinary and everyday.  Perhaps an old black and white movie would be just the thing.