Snow Daze

I remember it like it was yesterday: My brothers and I are huddled around the radio in the kitchen, none of us willing to take off our pajamas and therefore giving into the inevitable. We knew that there was a small window of time - essentially between six and eight in the morning - when the superintendent of schools could call off school. We listened to the local station, KBOL (1490 on your AM dial), and listened to each county, then each city, then individual schools within our hometown.
We understood that whatever storm that might close the public schools of Boulder County would have to be more than just a little skiff of snow or a sudden breeze. We were still paying for the "hurricane force wind" that roared through town one morning in March. More to the point, the gust of wind that blew through Boulder at approximately six AM at more than one hundred miles an hour. Doctor Benard D. "Pat" Ryan made the call and cancelled classes for all schools in the Boulder Valley School District. Trouble was, the rest of the storm never materialized. Just that one lusty blow, then blessed sunshine and singing birds. We took that day and were glad for it.
We were cursed with a completely sufficient bus system and a very efficient snow removal crew, and we knew that if the roads were clear, school was on. I could glamorize it further by declaring that I walked to school through blinding snow and drifts up past my knees, and I wouldn't be stretching the truth by much. A plague of frogs might have been too much to hope for, but if we could see out the windows, we were probably going to be in a classroom by eight thirty. On the oh-so-rare occasions that we got our wish - "All schools in Boulder Valley School District will be closed today" - we wasted little time shoveling in some breakfast and strapping on our boots and our knit hats to head outside - to play.
Ten years ago, in the middle of the night, John Yagielski watched his car burn outside his home and decided then and there to end his 30-year career in education. No one was ever arrested, but police believe the fire was set because school superintendent Yagielski (of the large suburban Shenendehowa Central school system) had extended the school day by forty minutes for a few weeks to make up for a snow day. Those kids in Shenendehowa don't know how lucky they had it.