When it comes to conjuring a snowstorm, 8-year-old Taylor Zelman has
more than a few tricks aimed at getting the day off from school.
She
wears her pajamas inside out and backward. She runs around the kitchen
table five times and flushes ice cubes down the toilet. And as she goes
to sleep on winter school nights, she faithfully repeats, “I want it to
snow, I want it to snow, I want it to snow.”
“My teacher told me
to throw an ice cube at a tree, but I haven't tried it yet,” says the
third-grader from Leesburg, Va. “I'm sure there's tons more I could do.”
Indeed,
there are many snow rituals kids and adults alike use in hopes of
getting a day off from school or work. Some sing songs and perform
arm-flailing snow dances, while others place white objects or
silverware underneath their pillows.
Chris Conti fondly recalls
his elementary school days in Madison, Conn., when — wearing only
underwear — he would run around the house several times and then lie
down on the ground and count to 30, or “15 if there was already snow on
the ground because it was cold,” says Conti, who is now 24 and lives in
Massachusetts.
In Gahanna, Ohio, high school English teacher
Mary Lou Purdy keeps a snow globe that says “snow days” on her office
desk. She and colleagues regularly shake it as they walk by.
Half
the fun, Purdy says, is anticipating the possibility of a day off. “It
breaks up the monotony of winter. Otherwise, it's one gray day after
another,” she says. “There's something so comforting about getting to
roll over and stay under the covers — and enjoy the serenity of the
snow.”
Hallie Rozansky, a 16-year-old high school junior in
Abington, Pa., agrees and says she has become more likely to try the
pajama or silverware tricks as she has gotten older.
“We
definitely take it more seriously, because extra sleep is good,” Hallie
says, referring to herself and her 13-year-old brother, Robbie. “And we
also have more time to study.”
Taylor, the third-grader in
Virginia, also is convinced her rituals have an effect — and is
especially sold on ice-cube flushing. “It goes down to the ocean and it
freezes up the ocean,” she says. “So that's why I think it'll snow.”
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 September 2006 )
|
