Where Would I Tune In To?

Snow’s been the theme.  This morning it wasn’t snowing any longer but there was, for Beijing, a healthy amount of accumulation.  “I think we’re having a snow day!” My young one asserted.  Perhaps, we have had one such day, over the years living here, but it certainly isn’t a regular part of winter in Beijing.  It’s my fault certainly, as I’ve gone on and on about listening to the radio as a child and hearing one school after another announced as closed.   Eventually we’d hear the name of our town called and erupt in unqualified ecstasy, or stare bewildered as they wrapped up the announcement, with no mention of our school.

“I’m sure we’re having a snow day daddy!”  Certainly there is a lot of snow outside.  For a moment I became nervous.  I don’t have a radio.  How am I going to be able to tune anything in.  Where would I tune to?  Do they even follow such a ritual of announcements in Beijing?  Wouldn’t it take a few hours to name all the schools in a city of twenty million?

It took me a remarkable fifteen seconds or more of anguish before it hit me, Rip Vann Winkle-like:  “The internet.”  You can go to the specific school in question, look on the web site and it will no doubt mention if the school was closed.  Making my way over to my computer I savored my moment of innocence.   There was once only one way to check for a snow day: listening to the radio.  I haven’t had to do that since I was a teen.  That ritual of anticipation, of listening to the official voice, has become as antiquated as tales of FDRs fireside chat’s were to me.    

Three seconds, maybe five seconds after sitting down at my desk, I locate a purple-hued posting on the school web site stating clearly that school was open today.  “Really?  Man.”  “Yeah, its right here on the web site.”   Reluctantly she heads off, to get dressed. 

There are no plows in my neighborhood.  No salting trucks, either.  No one has snow tires; let alone chains to help them over the ice. The ride in was very slow, on the hard packed streets in my front-wheeled drive station wagon.  It strikes you anew that most people are relatively new drivers with next to no experience driving in the snow.  I might feel worried about all the parents and all the busses driving in this morning if I were the person who made the decision to keep the school open.