Snow Didn’t Used to Be That Big a Deal
The news out of Kansas City said we got six inches of snow in Warrensburg. In my neighborhood, it looked to be more like four and a half inches to me. It doesn't seem like half a foot of snow on my neighbors un-shoveled, un-disturbed, driveway. I was surprised when my boss Craig mentioned to me in a text that Sedalia only got two inches of snow. Heck I even saw grass poking up above the snow the closer I got to Sedalia. Maybe it's just me, but two, four, even six inch snowstorms... I don't remember them being a big deal growing up.
Like I said, it might just be me. Or it might be growing up in the Chicago suburbs. In Chicago if the public works department botches up snow removal, it can cost a mayor his or her job. And in the suburbs or the city many of us walked two or three blocks to school. Or got dropped of by mom or dad. So it was sort of expected you'd put your boots on, walk to school, then change into your school shoes and learn.
Of course, when many ride the school bus, and said school bus is having to travel many side streets and even head out of town into rural areas to pick kids up. I get perhaps closing schools, and telling employees to stay home. Gay street, a Warrensburg snow route, was still really slick and snow covered this morning. So I can see not wanting to drive a bus full of kids on it.
Simply It's a little harder to get around small towns because outside of a town's main street or two the snow doesn't turn into a sloppy slushy, watery mess like it does on every busy street in big city USA.
Of course being out in the thick of any snow. One inch, two inches, four inches, six inches, can be hazardous when it's falling. In the city, or out in the country. It seems colder, it's hard to see, the roads get slick, and a certain amount of us forget to drive. So yeah, the advice to stay home yesterday was spot on.
It may be the one to three inches of snow that they've predicted for today that made a lot of places decide to close and let people stay home. Or maybe it was the ice that never came over night that made that decision. Or maybe we're just better in the 21st century at erring on the side of caution. But it seems to me, with very little new snow fall so far today, perhaps we made a bigger deal out of the snow than we really needed to.
It's December in the Midwest. It snows. Yeah, four and a half inches of snow is a pain in the ass. Getting around in it yesterday was particularly nasty. But the area public works crews, at least in Sedalia and Warrensburg, not to mention MoDOT did an admirable job overnight of getting the main roads ready for us to drive on 'em today.
I've lived in a lot of places. Big cities, smaller towns, rural areas and the suburbs. Even as an adult twenty years ago, I don't remember snow being as big a deal as it is today. Of course, maybe it's just me. Or maybe I'm a little jealous there aren't snow days in radio. Regardless, if you got a snow day today. Enjoy it. If we're lucky it'll warm up enough by the end of the week so it'll all melt and we can wash the salt off our cars. If that happens, it should be a good weekend for the car washes.