We Used To Know How To Drive

I've officially turned into my grandfather; "these kids" don't know how to drive.

He used to crab about that on a regular basis, especially when he was being driven from one spot to another after he couldn't drive anymore. Especially in winter when it snowed, but it seems like we did a much better job back then in the 70s (when I was a teenage curmudgeon instead of an old man like Grandpa) even when it seemed to be snowing more back then.

What happened in the past generation?

Schools are closed all over greater Akron today but when you go to work -- and make no mistake about it, unless you work for the schools you ARE going to work today -- you'll find side streets snow-covered but the main roads wet and a bit slushy. Not impassable and certainly not the blizzard-like conditions that prompted Medina County to declare a Level 2 "get the hell off the highway" warning Sunday. Wet and slushy, slick ramps and bridges, about what we should expect in a typical northeast Ohio winter.

I know the arguments from the rural districts such as Highland will be those hilly highways haven't been cleared yet because ODOT and local salt trucks have been busy hitting the main roads; I hear the school administrators note it's unfair for the little tykes to stand in the snow waiting for the bus; I can only imagine the parents who won't clear their own sidewalks whining about the tough slog their kids will have getting to the bus stop.

People: you live in Ohio, for God's sake! It snows. There's slush. It can get icy.

In those good old days we still went to school unless it was snowing that morning or the snow totals started being measured in feet, not measly inches. And that was walking uphill both directions.