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December 22, 2008

Don't Jinx It! Students follow snow day superstitions to the letter

By VANESSA McCRAY

TRAVERSE CITY -- The night before a recent snow day, Traverse City student Nick Mueller was recruited to help summon a school cancellation.

"Last night, I got this text message," began Nick, 15.

The instructions were simple. Send along the text, chain-letter style, to 15 people and it will raise "hopes" for a snow day. Nick complied, and, abracadabra, the following Monday dawned cold -- frigidly, bitterly, bone-chillingly so -- with blustery winds, blowing snow and icy roads. Then came those words often wished for during the frosty season: No school.

Students with a little imagination sometimes employ a few tried and true rituals to conjure snow flurries. So, did the flurry of texts help shutter school doors?

"I'm sure it did," said Nick, nearly straight-faced.

He hit the slopes at Mt. Holiday last week to celebrate the day off. Near him in the lift line was Maddy Duensing, 13, who had her own snow day superstition.

"The first snow day this year I actually did wear my pajamas inside out," she said.

The PJ maneuver is quite popular among students hoping for a snow day. Lena Gerstle, 8, puts a little spin on that tradition.

"Mine is wear your pajamas inside out and backwards," said the Eastern Elementary third-grader.

Her sister Zoe, 11, volunteered another.

"One of them is, you put a spoon under your pillow," Zoe said.

That method has worked before, she said. The girls learned the techniques from friends at school.

Their mother Marjorie Rich, a member of the Traverse City Area Public Schools board, said parents can be upset by the decision to keep school open, or the choice to close it.

"It's a really difficult call to make..., what's happening in one place might not be happening in another area," Rich said.

In Suttons Bay, Superintendent Mike Murray uses a mass communications system to announce snow cancellations. The technology enables Murray to record a voice message and then it calls 600 to 700 families to alert them.

"This system uses multiple lines so that when I ask the message to go out, just about everybody received the message within a five-minute span," he said.

Kingsley Area Schools Superintendent Lynn Gullekson makes snow day decisions, but first he and someone from the transportation department drive the roads around 4 a.m. to judge weather conditions. Gullekson tries to make the decision by 5 a.m.

Students hoping to influence administrators can turn to the Internet for a host of stunts some swear will bring snow days. The suggestions involve frozen white crayons, carefully positioned pennies, flushed ice cubes and snow dances. Gullekson has heard about the inside-out PJs and the spoon-under-pillow, but laughingly called the superstitions "just vicious rumor."

"I hear it's not been proven, because it's been tried a lot the last couple weeks," he joked.

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