Snow fort – Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

Flashback: A winter day in the late 1970’s. At 6:30am, the phone rings. It is our neighbor, who works for the school district. She informs my mom or dad that school has been cancelled for today. We know before it even hits the TV or radio! It’s a SNOW DAY!!

Back to today – 2020.

I read a New York Times article today that echoed what I had read in a few other articles from our local newspapers and TV stations. The “Snow Day” is probably a thing of the past, thanks to COVID-19 and the pandemic!

I wish I could say that this was not true, but it looks like that is exactly the case. Thanks to the schools being forced to close to “flatten the curve,” and the technology for remote learning, there is no reason for school to not proceed on days when the weather is bad. Snow days will be replaced with virtual learning.

I do understand that going virtual solves the problem of adding on days to the end of the school year, because of too many snow days. No kid wants to have to go to school later than they have to. However, I think that by making every snow day a virtual day robs kids of certain things that they may only get to do on snow days.

I look back fondly on the snow days of my childhood! There were so many things to do!

Sledding

It was always fun to gather up some kids and find a good hill to sled down. Every so often, someone’s mom would pack up the car and kids from the neighborhood and take us to a HUGE hill somewhere! These were good times!!!

Snowmen

When the snow was “good packing”, you could bet that almost every kid was out on their front lawn making a snowman! I remember looking for all the perfect things for his eyes, arms, and such. We had an old beat up hat we would put on ours. It was always dirty, too, because it would pick up all the grass and twigs that were on the lawn.

Forts

Again, if the snow was the right texture, you could go out and build one hell of a snow fort! I have blogged about this in the past. We had stuff to make blocks and build the forts with. We really had some amazing snow forts. I can guarantee that every snow fort I ever built was built on a snow day!!

Snowball Fights

If you’re building a fort, you know you are gearing up for war! There is bound to be one amazing snowball fight! You’d stock that fort up with as many snowballs as you could make in preparation for your enemies. Who didn’t love a good snowball fight?!

Skating

While I never learned to ice skate, I know many people who did. Before I moved to Warren, there was a pond that was next to our house. When it would freeze up in the winter, people skated on the ice. I would go out in my snow boots and slide all over the ice. What a blast!!!

Snow Angels

Whether you are a child or an adult, there is just something fun about flopping down in the snow and making a snow angel! I am SO looking forward to doing this with my daughter!!

It makes me sad to think that some kids will never know the fun and excitement of getting a snow day. It seems that technology has robbed children of yet another thing.

Perhaps before banning snow days completely, districts could allow for one or two days for snow days? Teachers could use the day to adjust lesson plans, or something like that…. I pray that snow days don’t vanish like a sledder at the bottom of a hill….

Maybe I will just have to make it a point to “call in sick” for my kids so they can enjoy a good snow day in the future…..

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It’s almost February, but we are still smack dab in the middle of a Michigan winter. The last snowfall we had left about 5-6 inches of what we used to call “good packing” snow as kids. This was the type of snow that was heavy and a little wet – perfect for making snowballs, snowmen, and snow forts!

A few times over the past few weeks, I have jotted down things in my blogging notebook but never felt like it was enough for a full blog. Today, while surfing through some of my favorite websites, I came across this picture:

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The picture took me immediately back to when I was in elementary school! I recalled building a snow fort and having two or three kids who did nothing but make snowballs in preparation for the snowball fight! We didn’t have a bench, but we had boxes and buckets where the finished snowballs were placed so we’d be ready.

I remember one day in particular – it was either a snow day or a weekend – and it had snowed a lot. My buddy, Kris, lived down the street and he was outside working on a HUGE hill of snow. I threw some Wonder Bread bags on my feet over my socks, put on my “moon boots”, grabbed my scarf, hat, and gloves and ventured over to his house.

When I arrived, he told me that he was going to take the hill and make it into a snow fort. I believe we just started burrowing into the side of this hill making a sort of tunnel to get in. He had a few shovels of various sizes and we all went to work, being careful to not dig so far that the fort collapsed. That fort was to look something like this:

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As silly as it sounds, I remember having shelves inside the fort to place things on. I also remember having flashlights and candles because it was dark inside. I know we spent a lot of time outside – we were often out after it got dark!

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I always thought it was cool to be inside the fort after dark with the candles lit. We had papers and drew out our strategies to fight the epic “snow battle”. As a parent today, I’d be worried to death that the roof of a snow fort like this would fall in on my kids! I am sure I would probably be outside watching them!!

I would probably end up making forts like this for my kids …

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I don’t recall if it was the following year or not, but making a snow fort got easier (and safer). I remember Kris, me, and a few other kids in the neighborhood all had these “block makers” that we had seen advertised on TV. You scooped up the snow and stacked up the blocks!

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When I was growing up, the above block maker was all we could buy. A search of the internet today showed me that you can buy all kinds of these things today!

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How cool is that?!? I remember the blocks never being exactly perfect, but they still made some very cool snow forts! Solid walls! Perfect protection from the oncoming barrage of snowballs from the enemy!!

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We had so much fun during those winters on Highland Dr. Just recently, Kris posted a picture of a lot of us outside playing in the snow the last winter he and his family were in the neighborhood. It was hard to tell from the picture, but we all could very well be in front of a wall of snow blocks.

Preparing for this blog, I can tell you that I found an amazing idea for when my daughter is old enough to play in the snow! I did a search for “snow forts” and someone posted an idea using wood pallets. So, you basically build the frame of the fort/house with the pallets – like this:

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This guy ran LED lights inside the thing!!

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How friggin’ cool is that?!?!? The article I read said to cover the tops with tarp and await the snow! I am sure my neighbors will wonder just what the hell I am doing when they see this, but when my kids are outside playing in this AMAZING fort/house … they will be jealous and say, “That guy is brilliant! Look what he made for his kids!”

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