It is snowing up and down the eastern half of the country this morning; as I type I can hear the precipitation—having changed over to rain in Brooklyn—adding a creme-brulee-like crust of ice to the overnight snowfall. Despite that, I brought the Tuned In Jrs. to school this morning; there was no snow day declared in New York City, and thanks to our damned efficient system of public transportation, there almost never is. (Because I am a cruel old man, I recently tortured the kids with my memory of the times in Michigan when a blizzard would cancel school for a solid week.)
I recently received a DVD set of The Complete Underdog Collection, and it reminded me that I have an entire category of shows from my childhood that I associate with snow days, and only with snow days. Underdog is one of them—the ’60s cartoon about the canine superhero and perpetually imperiled Polly Purebred. I used to watch the reruns when school was cancelled for snow, and as far as I can remember, only when school was cancelled for snow. (I’m guessing this was a function of the time of day it aired in the Detroit area, as opposed to Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, which ran in the mornings.)
Sadly, today my kids have far more animation options on TV and DVD any given day, and frankly better ones. (Underdog doesn’t really hold up as well now as, say, Rocky and Bullwinkle.) And yet they have fewer snow days. In honor of them, then, I’m watching some Underdog this morning:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcjOi_3H7gw]
What were your snow-day standbys?