Snowbody here: Time off in winter wonderland

Today is a snow day in the Numismatic News office.

Actually, Monday was the snow day.

Today is the “it’s too frickin cold” day off.

You might have seen us poor Wisconsinites mentioned on the national weather reports.

This is when we get to see how cold it can get in this part of the world so we can file it away in our memories.

Those who are old enough can recall the back-to-back weekends in January 1982 when it was 38 degrees below zero here.

That wasn’t wind chill. That was the mercury reading.

The days between the weekends were no picnic, either.

Temperatures remained below zero.

We did not get days off from work then.

Perhaps that was because the company was too small.

Perhaps it was because when Chet Krause heard that an employee’s car wouldn’t start, he would very kindly send someone over to help us start it and/or bring us to the office. Sometimes he would be the one to go help the stranded.

Life in a small town can be wonderful that way.

Another January of bad weather and time off comes to mind.

It was in 1969 when I lived in Lake Mills, Iowa.

We had incredible snow storms that year.

We came back from Christmas vacation in January for just one day when snow shut the school for the rest of the week.

The following week, we managed to go to school on Monday and Tuesday.

Then more snowstorms closed the school for the rest of the month.

I delivered newspapers then.

In those days, I could ride a bicycle on snow-covered or ice-covered streets.

Only glare ice could keep me off my bicycle.

It is amazing what a kid can do when he doesn’t want to walk.

Naturally, as each day of school was called off, I was pleased.

I got my comeuppance when the school district decided we had to make up lost time to reach the state-mandated minimum count of school days.

We had to attend classes on six successive Saturdays.

That really pinched my paper route collection duties.

My customers understood why I showed up at their doors late in the afternoon on Saturdays instead of at 9 a.m.

Even though snow days make me feel like a kid again, I would rather be in the office getting my job done in the usual way.

However, in this case, I know that I will not have to come to the office on Saturday.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper “Numismatic News.”

 

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