Pluggers by Rick McKee for February 19, 2024

If you played in the street and remember yelling CAR! you had an awesome childhood!

Shout-out to everyone who remembers their childhood phone number but can’t remember a password they created yesterday. You are my people!

1957 in St Louis county. My hands were so cold I was crying by the time I walked the mile to get home from school

How many of us have told our kids and grandkids how we used to walk to school in the snow, uphill, both ways, with no shoes on our feet, wild dogs snapping at our heels…….good times!

Pluggers from warm climates need not apply.

Attended Catholic grade school in the 50s. Southern California. My buddy, Ken, and walked 2 miles to school. On one very rare occasion of rain we arrived soaked and the Nuns took pity on us and gave me and Ken hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls and some dry clothes from the “poor” bin. Being clever boys, each subsequent rainy day we stood under down spouts and got thoroughly wet on our way to school.

Went to school in the 70s-80s. If the buses could get through, school was on. Seldom ever got a snow day, though we had 2 hour delays occasionally. Was the same with temperature…40 below? oh yeah, as long as the boilers at school were working and the buses would start, it was off to school we’d go. Heck, even a tornader didn’t stand in the way of education…DAHIK.These days, school is cancelled if the temp. drops to zero or if we get much more than 2" of snow.

I remember listening with anticipation for the radio to broadcast the name of our school closing because of snow. Since I lived only a block away from my Grade School, it wasn’t a hardship to walk there whatever the weather. I even would build snowmen on the playground with other kids who also lived nearby.

well, maybe not a foot

One of the years we lived in Iowa it snowed on Memorial Day. (Sorry, it was Decoration Day.)

If the superintendent’s helicopter couldn’t take off……we had school.

Yes we did walk a mile to get to school . At least the trip back was downhill ! The part I did not understand was why we still had to take Gym class when we got a daily workout just to get there ;-)

No one lets their kids walk to school anymore so they have to close the schools until the streets are plowed.

I used to walk just under a mile to school. Wasn’t allowed to ride my bike because it wasn’t quite a mile. Only got to stay home in winter if the temp was -10 F or lower and that was my Mom’s rule. This was in the 50s. 1950s.

In Grade school most of us lived well within walking distance to the four K-6 schools in the corners of our mile square town. The 7-12 Jr-Sr high building was 3/4ths of a mile from the farthest point of the square in its geographical center. It was rarely a problem for the kids. However, the staff and most of the teachers were commuting into the town so if the highways were closed so was school. Living in eyeshot of the school flagpole, I learned flag up by 0730=school open. No flag/no school.

Back in 1956 during a blizzard, my Father took pity on us and drove us to school. The principal was standing on the school steps , saying it was closed. I can still “see” our car drive away and then we walked home.

We had a sled that was about 4’ long. Champion Flyer I think? We would run and dive on sled going down hill . It was a street so we had to stop when cars came unless it was shut down by a cop friend of ours.

Everybody ‘snickers’ at the ‘Dad joke’ about older people and (what other people think) about their ‘supposed’ treks to school when younger. I never had an idea about how far it was until as an adult (when visiting my hometown once), I drove from where my old school WAS to where I lived during most of tenure at that school and found that it was just under a mile and a quarter. So, in my case, it wasn’t far off ! ! !

And he had to walk two miles up hill in the snow to get home at the end of the school day.

I walked a half-mile to high school in the early 60s. Sometimes there was enough snow I was grateful I was carrying my French horn in a case, as it kept me balanced as I walked through a small park. BTW, I remember a lot more snow during those years, and that snow would stick around on the sidewalks most of the winter.

Girls couldn’t wear slacks to school when I was in school so we wore them under our dresses on snowy days. When we got inside, we would open the classroom door and stand one-at-a-time in the corner behind it to take our jeans off. The boys would stand there giggling and trying to peak through the crack.

It was only a half miles and the ground was flat, but being a religious school it took an “act of god” to shut it down for the day. A couple feet of snow was just a trial.

i grew up in Providence RI and my walk to school was 1.6 miles one way…i googled it…and we had to walk to school from 5th to 8th grade

It took more than 12 inches of snow overnight for a snow day. Many roads were snow-covered most of the winter winter.

I just hung on the rear bumper of cars and was skiing with my boots behind cars as the roads were always covered in snow. Roads and parking lots have snow and ice on them and people walk carefully, Now parking lots and roads are clear and tons of salt is put on them so people can’t slip and fall and sue. But they still do. guess we old people lived a different life. One where we took responsibility for ourselves for what we did.

I remember.

I only remember 1 snow day during my school years. It turned into a “snow week.” No one went anywhere. I remember that on day 2, I thought I heard an outboard motor. I looked out the window and saw kind of a motorcycle without wheels zipping down the street. My first encounter with a snowmobile. The people who owned them quickly became heroes. They took people to the hospital, rescued stranded motorists, and brought food to their neighbors.

From ’58 to ’60 (1st & 2nd grades, half of 3rd grade), I walked nearly a mile to and from school. In ’60, we moved so I got to ride the bus. By then, schools were frequently closed for snow due to unplowed rural roads.

I do remember walking to school in snow storms, several times we did have early dismissal but hardly ever cancellation in the morning ….. great memories …. ;)

1 mile to school for me and we did have “snow days”. It was Cheyenne Wyoming with 3 or 4 blizzards a year. heavy, wind driven snow for 2 or 3 three days leaving snow pilled to the rooftops. no one was outside!

My mom would stock up on bakery goods in anticipation and the whole family would spend the time indoors baking and nibbling. When the snow stopped we kids would climb on the drifts and dig tunnels through them.

Up hill…both ways!

Yeah.. and my Grandfather walked 10 miles to school… A bit confabulated, but still rings true.

I have a book with all my passwords written down- – - -

52681 When I was in school (40’s and 50’s ) they didn’t know how to close schools for snow.

I drove a school bus when we had to put chains on to make our rounds

don’t come to Arkansas. they close when theres a dusting

When I was a kid, I never lived any place that got a foot of the white stuff at once. For a couple of years I lived in a town that would call off school for 2-3", but that was because the buses couldn’t make it up the hills. One day we had an unexpected 6" after school started, & we got let out a couple of hours early. That was, shall we say, an interesting trip home…

Schools close because it used to be that students could walk to school, Today so many live in the suburbs and would have to cross busy highways(assuming they’ve been cleared). And even if the students live within walking distance most of the teachers live in the suburbs and face the same problem, also others, such as getting the kinder to day care. I am in my 80’s and when I started school back in the 40’s and early 50’s, almost all of us walked to school. We also went home for lunch. There was a very small room for those who lived too far to get back in time. By the time I reached the upper grades, the move to the suburbs had begun, and schools started to close after a snowstorm.

Those long walks were just part of the educational process.

It was never the snow, or low temperatures. It was, and still is, the cold wind blowing down your neck. Cold hands? After they are numb, you can’t get any colder, but beware the thaw when back indoors.

Yes I was the official CAR notifier!!!