Yesterday was the monthiversary of my move to Halifax. I didn't do anything to celebrate. But as I rode the bus to "work" and looked out across the basin and harbour as we crossed my favourite bridge, I did observe that I'm still happy with my choice.
I was thinking about snow days. I miss snow days. We used to get them all the time in grade school and high school. I can remember sitting in the kitchen, over the heating vent with a blanket (the warmest places in our house. My brother and I would fight over who got the best vents. We ate the majority of our childhood breakfasts on the floor of the kitchen. The rest of our time was spent huddling by the wood stove. Did I mention it was a cold house?) listening to Chuck radio's morning broadcast. God, even as a small kid I hated the music they played. But they were the station with the bus cancellations, and I'm sure they relished the power it gave them. I'm convinced they played the crappiest music on the bad weather days, just to be mean. Some of the songs are still ingrained in my head: The Letter , Constant Craving (KD Lang, the opening lyric of which I always sang as "Lothar of the hill people" most likely because I watched more SNL than children should) and there was another song that I luckily can't remember, but I hated it so much I would turn the volume down every morning when they played it.
As I was saying, Chuck had the bus cancellations, which they would read out in numerical order, and we would just sit in anticipation of our number (which I can't remember now - 127? 129? Kimm, you probably still remember...). And it was such a great feeling when your bus number was announced. The whole, long, snow-filled day opened up. You didn't have to get dressed, you could even go back to bed. The feeling was even sweeter if you hadn't done your homework in anticipation of a snow day - a risky gambit, but it payed big dividends. The only bad part about snow days was shovelling the snow from the driveway. Although, I think I got out of it more often than not.
I wish there were fun, carefree snow days in the adult world.
P.S., Wikipedia informs me the Chuck no longer exists and is now calling itself something else and broadcasting under a different frequency. Like the radio equivalent of the witness protection program. You can't fool me! I know you still suck!
4 comments:
My public school bus number was 102 and highschool was 156... I don't however remember your bus numbers... and how on earth did you manage to get snow days in public school? Your house is like a 5min walk from the school.
Chuck radio (or up-chuck as I called it) is now 107.9 The Breeze...and along with the name and frequency change the music they play is marginally better then the old station. Though 93.3 The Star...Cobourg's other station (that likes to pretend they are a Peterborough station even though they broadcast from the same station as 107.9 The Breeze) plays much better music.
Sure, my house was close, but the walk was all uphill. Through some happy luck I was considered a bus student. I think mom didn't want us walking because it was a house-less, sidewalk-less stretch of road and there was lots of space in those wooded lots and corn fields for kidnappers to hide.
I had to walk farther to get to my bus stop then you had to walk to get to the school...and my hill was bigger then yours!
And, clearly, your mother was less paranoid than mine!
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