Snow Storms and Perfect Attendance

There are two tough winters that I can instantly recall the year of, 1992 and 2004.

2004 was cold, very cold, Hamilton's modern record low temperature of -30C was recorded at Hamilton Airport on January 16, 2004. I remember day-after-day of cold, layering my uniform jackets, and still being cold.

1992, I remember it for the number of storms, the wind, the cold, and the one day I was one minute late for school. I loss my perfect attendance. This was a big deal to me, I hadn't been able to get perfect attendance because of moving between schools during the year.

1992, we'd already had many snow days when the storm I remember was raging. It was windy, very windy. I was walking across Central Park in Hamilton's Central neighbourhood, a gust of wind knocked me over, I was fighting the wind to walk. I was across the street on Hess Street when the bell rang. I loss my perfect attendance.

There's a certain irony that by the time I reached high school, I no longer cared about attendance. Actually, that's not true, I did track my attendance. The Education Act stated that any student who missed 20 or more classes could not be granted the credit for that course. I would skip 19 classes in each one of my courses, including the final three days (always have a cushion).