A View of the Valley

by Linda Schwanke Do kids who are going to school virtually get snow days? While there wouldn’t be any good reason for kids who are learning at home to have a snow day, it’s one of those things that make winter really special for kids. Staying up late the night before snow is forecast because you might not have school the next day. Getting up early to find out if school is called off. Being completely disappointed if it’s not while your parents are secretly relieved. Going back to bed or getting bundled up to go out and play in the snow if it is a snow day while parents – who usually have a plan in place for snow days – scramble to figure everything out. Snow is a much more kid-friendly weather phenomena than it is for adults, although I know a guy who got a new snowplow for his truck this year and he’s pretty excited to try it out. The rest of us are less than thrilled. Driving in snow is not fun. Shoveling it is a pain. Ug. Last week’s snow, the first to really amount to something this winter, didn’t last long but it put me of a mind to think about snow.  It hasn’t been my job since I was a kid to have to shovel snow on a regular basis so actually I don’t really mind snowy days, especially now that I don’t have to drive to an office. But when I was in junior high, my sister Leah and I were assigned the chore of shoveling and we did mind. A lot. We had the longest sidewalk in town – not really – and even had to shovel the walk to the front door even though no one ever used it – they did. Sigh. I don’t think it was really that bad. We took time to have snowball fights with neighbor kids, piled the snow we shoveled into a fort and all in all had fun. That didn’t stop us from whining about having to shovel, I’m sure, although I honestly don’t remember. After shoveling, we’d presumably put on dry clothes, maybe not, and head over behind the parsonage (pronounced par-snitch for some unknown reason) with half the kids in the village to sled on the hill that rolled down to the creek. We spent all day outside, going home for lunch and back out again. Someone’s mom would invariably call us all to go home for dinner far too early. Because Black Earth was such a small place, if anyone’s mom said it was time to go home for dinner to her kids, it meant it was time for dinner for all of us and heaven help the kids who didn’t listen, regardless of which mom it was. I wonder if all the moms got on the phone to each other to figure out who’s turn it was to call us all home? A question I shall never know the answer to but should have asked long ago. Not that any one of our moms would admit to conspiring like that.  My own kids have taken turns over the years to shovel, mostly when hubby Jim didn’t have time because I think he secretly enjoys getting out the snowblower and clearing everything up. He used to have a four-wheeler with a plow and would run all over the neighborhood plowing driveways and sidewalks. I wonder if he misses those days?  I have more than one picture of and son Bill shoveling snow in shorts. His excuse was that he was working up a sweat and didn’t want to overheat. I think he just liked showing Mother Nature that he was tough enough to take whatever she sent. Or he was stupid. More than one kid, including one of my own, was known to spend the winter months wearing flip flops. This, I believe, is simply goofy and not a defiant gesture to the elements. Could be wrong. It’s hard to say with teenagers. When they were younger, Jim or I and our friends would take our kids down to the golf course in Spring Green for sledding. Beautiful, wonderful days. Standing around chatting with the grownups while the kids acted like maniacs in the snow. It would have made a good place for a coffee bar that also served hot cocoa. (This is a hint to some enterprising individual.) Kids sled there every winter. One of these days, Gwen will pack up her daughter Mildred to sled at the golf course with all their friends. Last year when they went they both came home laughing and frozen solid. As a grandma, I can in good conscience skip the sledding but now have the much more enjoyable task of making hot drinks and getting warm blankets ready for them. I’m really fortunate to have grown up in a small town and I’m grateful that my kids did, too. Mildred is so far as well. People in rural areas may miss all the hubbub of city life but it’s a price I gladly pay for the connectedness of a village. The Valley is a very special place. We are so lucky to live here. I read something I wanted to share that isn’t about small town life but applies to us all. In winter, snow or not, it is dark out a lot longer than it’s light. House numbers should be visible from the street year round. If your house numbers are beautiful but unreadable, it’s time to make them stand out for the sake of people looking for your house including friends, fire fighters, EMTs and police. Take a little time to make sure your house can be found when time is of the essence.  Stay in touch. My number is 574-3159. Email me at homenewseditor@newspubinc.com or write to me at the Home News, P.O. Box 39, Spring Green WI 53588.  The news deadline is 12 noon on Mondays.  We’ll have early deadlines for Christmas and New Year’s.  Get in touch with Gwen for sports or features at homenewssports@newspubinc.com. If you need a display ad, Dave Pronold can be reached at homenewssales@newspubinc.com or by calling him on his cell at 588-4777. Display ads, or ads that are in boxes, are due by 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. The classified ad deadline is noon Thursdays the week prior to publication for both the Buyer’s Guide and Home News. Classified rates are $13 for the first 10 words, then 30¢ per word for each additional word. Call (608) 767-3655 or email classifieds@newspubinc.com  Legal notices are due by 2 p.m. on Fridays, email them to legals@newspubinc.com Call the NewsPub central office at (608) 767-3655 for subscriptions and all other information Monday through Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, although afternoon hours can vary. Closed Fridays.