{"id":5719,"date":"2019-02-20T10:30:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T15:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=5719"},"modified":"2019-02-20T10:31:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T15:31:31","slug":"snow-days-family-time-enjoying-the-little-things-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=5719","title":{"rendered":"Snow Days, Family Time & Enjoying the Little Things in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Growing up in Flordia, I was unfamiliar with the term “Snow Day.”<\/em> The closest we ever got to one was on January 19, 1977, when I was in the 5th grade. That day, the snow — from the sky, not the other stuff which was already there — made it all the way to Miami.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Looking back, we only got a dusting in Lake Placid, the small-town\u00a0located in the middle of caladiums, lakes, orange groves, rolling hills, and snowbirds in south-central Florida. It was just a little snow, but the excitement for a bunch of Florida kids, most of whom had never seen snow, was almost too hard to contain. For some strange reason,\u00a0our parents and teachers were not as amused. Go figure.<\/p>\n

In the days of rabbit ears and antennas, way before Al Gore ever thought about inventing the Internet, it would be an understatement to say that everyone,\u00a0\u00a0including famed weatherman Roy Leep<\/a>, was caught by surprise at the unexpected appearance of snow on that cold January day. With no true “Snow Day”<\/em> experience under my belt, I somehow had the sense (perhaps just the wishful thinking of a 10-year-old boy) that school would be canceled. How could it not? We were just walloped by the biggest snow ever recorded in Florida. It would be stupid NOT\u00a0to cancel school for such a historic, once-in-a-lifetime event. Apparently, more “mature”<\/em> and “wiser”<\/em> heads prevailed and kids had to go to school. Well, I did, but my now-wife and brother-in-law did not.<\/p>\n

“Mom, Dad. Can I stay home from school today? It snowed and there is no way I can make it to school. School should have been called off anyway.”\u00a0 I think I may have said something like that, but, 42 years later, my memory is a bit hazy. However, the answer to my question is still as clear today as it was when the original Dixie Scott gave it: “NO!”\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, that was that. No arguing. No pleading my case (that was before I thought I wanted to be a lawyer). End of discussion. I got dressed, ate breakfast (probably pancakes that mom made), walked through the orange grove, and downhill to\u00a0Lake Placid Elementary\u00a0School, within spitting distance of Scott Funeral Home where I lived. January 19, 1977, will forever live in my memory and the memory of those who enjoyed the little things in life when we were just kids. Even though I didn’t get to enjoy a “Snow Day,”<\/em> I just wish the snow had not melted by the time school was out. Then I could legitimately say, “I walked uphill and downhill to school in the snow.”<\/em>\u00a0That would have made a unique, “Do you remember when,”<\/em> story to tell to my kids and grandkids.<\/p>\n

Family time is full of those kinds of stories. So, the next time you get a “Snow Day”<\/em> or, some other unforeseen\u00a0event gives you some extra family time, enjoy it. Cherish it. Treat it as a blessing, not a curse. Why? Because time goes by so quickly and you never know how much family time you will have until it is gone. Then it will be too late to enjoy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Flordia, I was unfamiliar with the term “Snow Day.” The closest we ever got to one was on January 19, 1977, when I was in the 5th grade. That day, the snow — from the sky, not the other stuff which was already there — made it all the way to Miami.\u00a0\u00a0Looking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[3348,2463,590,3347,3346,3344,3345],"class_list":["post-5719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-do-you-remember-when","tag-florida","tag-lake-placid","tag-miami","tag-roy-leep","tag-snow-day","tag-snow-in-florida"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-1uf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5719"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5724,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5719\/revisions\/5724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}