Tropical Snow Day Memories

I live in the south. Some would call it the deep south. It's cold here tonight--and I love it! For those of you just joining us (or those having a senior moment) I was born and raised in Key West, Florida. Its claim to fame is that it's the southernmost city in the U.S. Basically, it's the closest thing our country has to a tropical island. The average temperature is about 85 degrees year round. We'd get a couple of chilly days each winter. The locals would just put a hoodie on and still wear their shorts and flip flops. Classic.

Which leads me to today's topic....


So the inspiration for today's post is that it's incredibly cold here in Starkville and may cause schools to be closed either tomorrow or on Friday. (My call is that we'll have school....it's too much of a pain to make those days up.) I started thinking of what a snow day would entail here in Starkville. Since I've lived here, we've not had one. But......that doesn't mean I've never experienced a snow day....let me 'splain....


When I was a kid, none of the schools in our district had heat. Now that I think about it, not all of the schools had air conditioning either. My elementary school was built in the early 1900's and sported ceiling to floor windows. This is the old school version of air conditioning. Anyway, when I went to Horace O'Bryant Middle School, we were blessed with a more modern building and air conditioning. Still no heat though. Most people in Key West don't have heat in their homes either. I can remember when I was in sixth grade, school was closed due to cold temperatures. I think that prior to that, the record low temperature was around 45 degrees. I remember that it was bitterly cold on this particular day and with the wind, it was about 20 degrees with the wind chill factor. You may be thinking that this isn't any big deal, but I have to tell you that when you get cold weather in a place that is especially humid, it feels FRIGID. Anyway, they closed school because it was so cold and there wasn't any heat for us. I don't remember if we had to make that day up or not, I was just excited to have a day off from school. I remember desperately trying to see my breath in the cold, tropical air. It didn't happen. As a matter of fact, I remember that coming to Mississippi for Christmas vacation was a novel thing because I would be able to see my breath for about 2 weeks straight.


It's not really so novel now....I can see my breath in my car as I'm driving to work in the morning. And that's with the heater on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I really enjoy the change in the season and I'd much rather be cold and add clothes than be hot. If I started removing clothes to get cool I'm sure I'd scare some people.


So tomorrow I'll let you know what happens in regards to the weather and any school closings. I'm putting my money on school being open but one can always hope for the elusive and magical snow day--with no school.