It’s a snow day… and another snow day… and another snow day…
We have had a week of snow, with temps below zero. Graceful patterns of frost on the windows, but so cold that I wear my coat inside. Today I walked around the block, or rather I scrambled and skittered. There was climbing involved, over heaps of snow dumped at the intersections by plows.
:There was even more snow, as I recall, when I was a girl. Winter lasted from November to Easter (sometimes later). We had few snow days, unless there was a life-threatening blizzard. Mom drove us to school, very cautiously, on the coldest, snowiest days.
We had fun on those snowy days at school. Our teacher, Mrs. W, made the days magical. We played games when we couldn’t go outside: “Hide the eraser,” word games (perhaps Password?), and Twister. (Many of us volunteered to bring in Twister games.)
Mrs. W also had a talent for choosing the best books to read aloud: The Pushcart War (now available as an NYRB book), Berries Goodman, Rascal, Snow Treasure, A Spell Is Cast, and Borden Deal’s A Long Way Home (which is $95 at Abebooks – what the hell?), among others.
Our enjoyment of Emily Cheney Neville’s Berries Goodman led us to the library to check out her earlier book, It’s Like This, Cat, which won the Newbery Award. I adore the first sentence:
My father is always talking about how a dog can be very educational for a boy. This is one reason I got a cat.
Even the title made us giggle. “It’s Like this, Cat!” we shrieked with laughter. We considered the title a bit of Beatnik slang, followed by the vocative of our favorite animal – the vocative of all us Kats, Kathys, Katrinas, Kates, etc..
I feel a bit like a Cat these days at bookstores. I crawl or slink on the floor to see the books on the bottom shelves. One bookseller thought I was having some kind of seizure. ”No, I’m just looking.” Have you ever tried to read the titles on the tiny Slightly Foxed books? Especially on the bottom shelves. You have to stand on your head.
It’s like this, Cat. But will I ever reread you?