Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for September 10, 2009

She used to love school. It drove Holly crazy.

Hey mom and grandma both went to school as kids too you know. They got through it and so will you.

my younger sister is lucking out… her 1st two days of school were cancelled because of a mercury spill so she gets an extended summer vacation.

Hopefully Alix is just upset about summer ending. Having two kids in the same house with a grumpy attitiude would be a nightmare. They are almost mirror images of each other in this strip.

Wait until they get inside and see friends. The one who has an extended summer break, I thought it would be about budgets. Some schools I’ve heard about only go for 4 days have to cut back.

A mercury spill would not have caused a cancellation in my day. These days they cancel school when the air conditioning fails. When I was in elementary school there was NO air conditioning and we went every day. And this was twenty miles from the Gulf Of Mexico … it was downright steamy.

They didn’t even close for blizzards when I went. We had to walk 5 miles, uphill both ways, through 6 feet of snow and no heat in the school. A lot of kids froze to death - we’d find them after the thaw. Harrumph - why, you young whippersnappers have it easy……

Dang ya, Ushindi, you beat me to it.

Seriously, though, I did have to learn how to walk through tear gas to get to class….

We even made snowballs for entertainment! And were allowed to use them! The only time the dress code was waived occurred when the temperature in the class hit 100 degrees during exams. The girls (and boys) were allowed to wear shorts. This was public school, no uniforms, only dress/skirts for girls and slacks (no jeans) for boys.

AMEN

Uphill both ways! I’m impressed. I must admit, that’s worse than we had it.

In my day they never closed schools for cold weather. In Montreal it only got down below -20 Fahrenheit (about -30 Celsius) a few times a year - and what was -20? It just meant that you put on a few extra layers!

So in the past few years I used to get upset over Weather Warnings, till I understood that they were used both for slightly cold weather and hurricanes. Since then I have never paid any attention to them, and this has not caused me any harm.

I used to carry a box fan from class to class in high school, when the temps were over 100F. The school only had one box fan (no a/c except in the office) per classroom, so having a second fan was much appreciated by everyone who sat near me. I’ve fainted a few times when I’ve gotten too hot, so at least I didn’t get in trouble for bringing the fan.

I thought she LOVED school! What happened?

It’s great living in Vancouver – they shut down the city if there’s a visible layer of snow on the streets! Of course they don’t notice the rain until everyone is treading water!

I remember once school got closed on account of wind. It was so cool. I got to stay home and watch as everything not bolted down seemed to fly away.

Incidentally, I did not grow up in hurricane or tornado country. I’m from Southern California. So winds like the Santa Anna’s were a big deal growing up.

Well, I may not have all my facts exactly straight - it’s possible there weren’t really many blizzards in the Sacramento valley in California, where I was raised. Memory can be tricky, you know….I’m certain, however, I never had to walk through tear gas to get to class, 4deer. That’s quite a childhood memory.

High school. Adolescence, not childhood. Only a few times, really.