It sure has been cold the past few weeks with temperatures even dipping below zero. Or maybe these couple warmer days have already made it a distant memory.

I love warmer temperatures and mild winters — no complaints there. But there is something nostalgic about a snowy winter.

Maybe my hindsight is a bit out-of-focus, but I swear the winters during my childhood were a bit snowier and colder than they typically are now. Well, definitely snowier.

This is going to make me sound really old, but here we go.

I remember ice skating on a small lake that was frozen so thick that we had a burn barrel on it to keep warm beside when we skated at night. Seeing the Lehigh River freezing over last week reminded me of those ice skating days.

I also remember sitting by the radio listing for school closings while a blizzard was going outside. No kidding.

The wind was blowing and the snow was coming down hard in big, fluffy flakes. It looked like you could hardly walk in it. I remember thinking in disbelief that they couldn’t possibly believe we could get to the bus stop in that.

Finally, after what seemed to take forever, the radio announcer would say what I longed to hear, “School is canceled.” Snow day! Oh glorious snow day! These didn’t happen all that often.

Back then, in the little western Pennsylvania town where I grew up, we got snow not too long after Halloween, and it was on the ground until spring. One Easter, I even made a snow bunny instead of a snowman — but I digress.

Anyway, the school district pretty much scoffed at the idea of a snow day. Instead, if the school bus didn’t show up within 10 minutes of the time it was due, you could go home and it was an excused absence. (You still had to trudge through the snow to get to the bus stop.) So many times, we kids would stand there, hoping beyond hope it wouldn’t show up. And so many times, it showed up in the last minute — ugh!

Our last reprieve from going to the school was if the bus could make it up the steep hill to the elementary school. If the bus couldn’t make it up the hill, then we went home. Most of the time, it made it. One time though, it didn’t.

I remember those wheels spun and spun as the bus driver tried to inch further up the hill. This wasn’t the first time the driver dealt with difficult conditions on this hill.

Making no headway, the driver backed the bus down to the base of the hill and went for a running start at it. No luck, (to our delight) we just couldn’t get to the top. Woohoo, home we went! Those were the days.

I guess maybe that’s why school districts now weigh on the side of caution when ice and snow and bitter cold temperatures blow into town. Better safe than sorry.