Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Two Hours Late

It has become my morning routine to watch Fox 9 news for a few minutes each morning before starting my day. I turn it on when Mark wakes me up, since he goes on line to work much earlier then I get moving. I claim to want to catch the weather, but really I just want to linger under the covers a few minutes longer.

Today I became captivated by watching the "delayed school starts" scroll across the bottom of the screen. It happens to me every time winter weather strikes. I can't help but watch to see if my school is late. More then 15 years ago, that was 'Buffalo Lake-Hector'. Today it scrolls as 'Buffalo Lake-Hector District' since some kids from Stewart now attend. I stay tuned, watching for the combined small town high schools of my day. Today, the names have changed from town initials (BDRSH - Belview/Danube/Renville/Sacred Heart) to Regional Areas (Renville West/as in the western side of Renville County).

I remember my elementary years, waking up on cold winter mornings in my sunny yellow bedroom (with a yellow ruffle bedspread, yellow flower wall paper, and Raggedy Ann & Andy pictures on the wall). I would hustle into my mom and dad's room, and snuggle in next to my mom. If there was a sign of fowl weather, we would listen to WCCO radio announce the delays and closing in alphabetical order. Often, BL-H was not called the first or second go through of the list. We would wait to get up until we HAD to, to make the bus. We were holding out, hoping we would get called the next round through... letting the calm, cool voice of the famous WCCO radio guy lull us.

Today, I think many parents actually get a text if there is a cancellation or late start.

Just the same, to this day, I am captivated by the TV every time school closings come on. I think I will forever look for Buffalo Lake-Hector.

2 comments:

JennyF said...

I loved those days, when the school closings were by radio. We had an old radio that hung on the wall in our kitchen, I remember that it had a big square ORANGE button for the power button. We would gather around it wasting the morning away not getting ready, then hoot and yell when our school was finally announced. Oh the good old days! Now we get an automated phone call the evening before, a text and an email.

Jen Lyons said...

I do the same thing! I always watch for Delano and Sauk Centre on the bottom of the screen.

We used to sit at the kitchen table as a kid and listen to WCCO announce the late starts & closings, hoping that Delano would be on the list. We were always up and eating breakfast, so never got to go back to bed.

Wasn't it during the Boone & Erickson Show that the announcements were made? Boone died a few years ago and Erickson just retired recently.

Ahhhh...the memories!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails