BSC Super Special #7: Snowbound

Tagline: All the Baby-sitters wanted was a little snow - not a national disaster!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The weather forecasters keep promising snow, but what a joke that is. Not a single flake has fallen on Stoneybrook this winter. How can SMS hold a Winter Wonderland Dance when it's warm enough to go to the beach?

Finally, it does snow - like crazy - and no one's prepared. Jessi gets stranded overnight at her dance school. Mallory and Mary Anne are snowed in with the Pike kids. But Stacey's in real trouble. She and her mom were driving back from the mall when the blizzard hit. And none of the Baby-sittesr have heard from her yet.

First they couldn't wait for it to snow. Now they can't for it to stop. Where could Stacey be?

Super Special Gimmick: Kristy thinks that while the newspaper coverage of the snow storm is very informative, it is also super dry, so she gets her friends to write up about their adventures to send to the newspaper as a people interest story.

The book starts off with everyone super excited about the Winter Wonderland dance. Everyone has a date and the girls are all looking forward to dressing up and having a good time together. For days and days, the weather forecasters have been talking about a massive snowfall, but there hasn't even been a single flake. It becomes a huge joke to everyone. At their Monday meeting that week, they reflect that since they're all going to be busy and scattered on Wednesday evening (Mallory and Mary Anne sitting for the Pikes, Jessi at an extra-long dance rehearsal and picking up her date Quint, Dawn getting Jeff at the airport), they should just cancel their meeting that day. Of course, Wednesday is the day of the giant snowstorm, and the power goes out and the phone lines go down, and everyone is all separated, with no way of getting in touch with each other.

Kristy has the most mundane story, but it's pretty cute. She's sitting at home Wednesday afternoon, and she's pretty bored. She’s thinking about the winter dance and how excited she is to be bringing Bart. She then decides that now would be a good time to hang out with him. They've never really hung out on the week day before, so Bart's a little confused, but agrees. Kristy rents movies, and her mom invites Bart to stay over for dinner. This is pretty intense, and it makes Kristy all nervous. She likes Bart, but doesn't really know what to think. Is he her boyfriend? Is she ready? Is he ready? Can he handle her family? The kids spend most of the evening pestering them and totally embarrassing Kristy. Dinner isn't much better. It starts snowing at dinner time, and although Watson agreed to drive Bart home, he wants to wait until it stops snowing so hard. So Bart stays for dessert. After awhile, Bart says he really has to get going, and that he doesn't mind walking (he literally lives just down the street). However, when they try to open up the storm door (or screen door, as my folks always called it), they discover that they're snowed in! The snowfall has been super heavy, plus it has blown up against the house. So Bart spends the night. Kristy is super embarrassed and nervous about Bart seeing her in the morning, so she sets her alarm extra early and actually goes into the bathroom and tries to primp. She shaves her legs for the first time, puts on some make-up and even tries to curl her hair! Aside from her hair, Kristy is pretty happy with the results. Of course, her siblings all make fun of her for it, but Bart says she looks beautiful.

Claudia has the next most mundane story. She spends the afternoon taking calls for the Club, then runs across the street to sit for the Perkins. Just before all the power and phones go out, the Perkins call to say that they can't drive back home, so Claudia will have to stay the night with the girls. As Claudia's putting the girls to sleep, she realizes that she can't find Chewy, the dog, and starts to panic. Claudia's mother comes across the street, and helps Claudia look for a bit, before deciding that nothing more can be done in the weather and in the dark. Mrs Kishi then offers to spend the night on the couch, but Claudia insists that she can look after the girls herself, and that if anything were to happen, Mrs Kishi is just across the street anyways. Claudia soon goes to bed, but is woken by Gabbie, who hears something. They go and investigate, and find that Chewy's been locked in the corner of the basement this whole time! Everything is fine, and the next morning they have breakfast and build a snow family.

Dawn and her mom are headed to the airport to pick up Jeff. For some reason, even though he's flown a bajillion times before, Jeff's been nervous about this time. Dawn wants to make sure they get to the airport with plenty of time to greet him. However, the snow has already started to fall when they leave, and Sharon isn't the most confident snow driver. She goes slowly, and despite having left early, they only get to the airport just in time. Of course, that doesn't matter because with the snowstorm, Jeff's plane hasn't arrived yet. Dawn is worried about how Jeff is handling things, but Sharon figures everything will be alright. They spend the evening hanging out in the airport, waiting to hear about Jeff's plane. Finally, word gets to them that the snow is so bad, Jeff's plane has been rerouted to Washington DC for the evening. Just as they're about to call Jeff to see how he's doing, the power and phone lines go out. They're advised not to leave the airport to go driving, so Dawn and her mom are stuck there overnight. They mostly walk around, buy a couple of books to read, try to get some sleep. Dawn has a creepy encounter with a wandering toddler ending up in her face, but that's about it. The morning comes, and though feeling grody, Dawn and her mom are extremely happy to see Jeff again.

Jessi is at a super long dance rehearsal. They're putting on a production of The Nutcracker. Anyways, no one can concentrate cuz the kids all want snow, and Jessi wants Quint and the dance. About an hour before rehearsal is due to end, some parents start calling in, saying that they'll be late picking up the kids. As time goes on, Jessi realizes that there's no one waiting around to pick them up (usually the parents of the younger kids will watch the last 15-30 minutes of rehearsal). Finally, sensing that she's lost their attention, Mme Noelle calls an end to rehearsal. Once everyone finishes changing, Mme Noelle and the other teachers have bad news: the snowstorm is too bad, and the parents can't come to pick them up. Everyone is stuck overnight at the dance school. Luckily the dance school has a cafeteria that had recently been stocked with dried fruit and nuts and instant soup, so they're not going to starve. In fact, it's pretty much like a giant sleepover adventure. Except all the little kids are upset, and in typical Jessi-fashion, she decides to help the adults comfort the children and keep them busy. At some point, Quint shows up! He had arrived at the train station just before the snow got really bad, and after awhile, he realized that Jessi and her father weren't going to be able to drive and pick him up. So he asked for directions and walked to the dance school! He also helps get the little kids settled. Eventually Jessi and Quint are able to retreat to the classroom where the older students are, and they sit around and gossip and have a grand ol' time. The next morning, the storm is over, the roads are plowed, and while waiting for their parents to pick them up, they're treated to a feast from the coffee shop across the street.

Stacey decides that with the Club meeting cancelled, now would be a perfect opportunity to go get her hair permed, so that it's perfect for the dance. She and her mom leave well before the storm hits (not even a flake in sight!) and get to the mall. However, while there, the storm hits. Stacey's mom hates driving in snow, but thinks that if they hurry, they can somehow beat it and get home before it gets too too bad. Mrs McGill decides to bypass the highway, figuring it'll be congested from everyone attempting to get home. Instead, she takes the back roads. This doesn't work well, as they aren't plowed and have very little traffic to push away the snow as it falls. Eventually, she decides to pull over and try to wait things out a bit. This normally wouldn't be too bad, except that Stacey has diabetes and needs to eat soon. She has her injection kit with her, but very little food. Mrs McGill decides to try driving again, only to find out that they're out of gas. So now Stacey's got her diabetes, and they have to worry about freezing to death. At that point, a man drives up and asks if they need help. He says he lives just down the street, with his wife and baby. Stacey's worried that he might be a killer, trying to lure them in so that he can kill them, but Mrs McGill decides to trust him. Turns out to be a great idea, and Stacey and her mom pass the evening having a great dinner, playing with the baby and making friends. They're even almost sad to leave the next day. They're completely surprised when they come home and realize that everyone is worried about them and had no idea that they were missed!

Mary Anne and Mallory are sitting for the Pikes. MA's spent Tuesday night there, since the Pikes left for NYC early in the morning. They have enough food for the day, plus some emergency money, but Mrs Pike points out that she'll have to go grocery shopping Thursday morning ASAP. Tuesday night, the kids are bonkers, expecting snow. Of course, there's no snow, and they all go to school fine. Wednesday evening, and it's still business as usual. The kids are still hoping for snow, with the triplets teasing Claire about the Abominable Snowman, and MA and Mallory prepare sloppy joes for dinner. However, the snowstorm hits, and soon the power goes out. The kids are simultaneously excited and creeped out. Of course, the Pikes can't come home like they wanted to, so MA and Mallory are on their own til the next day at least. MA calls her dad to let him know what's going on, but he wants to stay home for Dawn and Sharon. MA points out that they'll be okay anyways. Then the phone lines go down, and Mallory points out that they're running out of food. They decide to eat the ice cream and anything that might go bad without power, but come the next morning, it doesn't leave them with much. They try calling for pizza and other take-out items, but of course, no one is open. MA calls Logan, just wanting to hear his voice. She explains how they're okay, but they're hungry. The next thing they know, Logan shows up on cross-country skis with a backpack full of bread, crackers, peanut butter and a few other things. The day is saved and now the Pikes can enjoy the snow!

So everyone's survived the massive snowstorm. They later learn that they had a record snowfall of about 2 feet. The dance doesn't get cancelled, and everyone goes and has a great time. Yay!


Random Thoughts: 

• This is my favourite Super Special ever. I must have read this one a million times as a child. I think it's because we always have huge snowstorms up here... but snow is just kinda a thing that happens, so it's almost never an actual event. I still fantasize about getting snowed in and losing power for several hours, if not days. Aside from the massive Northeastern blackout in 2003 (which only affected my area for that first evening; a very short time compared to some people), the power in my area rarely ever goes out, and when it does, it's for like, an hour at most. Boring haha
• This one has the illustrations in it! This is probably why I remember those illustrations so vividly and always thought they were in every single Super Special haha
• I always loved the cover on this one, but Mallory looks a bajillion years old! Definitely older than Mary Anne. And then the Pike boy has to be one of the triplets, since Nicky is always described as having glasses and curly hair like Mallory's, but that kid is not one year younger than Mallory! haha
• Stacey goes into more detail in this one about the Washington Mall, which leads me to think that Stoneybrook isn't a town or city so much as a small municipality/neighbourhood. I grew up in Ottawa. Now what is called "Ottawa" is technically the "greater Ottawa area" or the "amalgamated city of Ottawa". When I was younger, I grew up in what is technically called Orleans, which is now an area in the east end of Ottawa. Since it is generally assumed that everyone lives in "Ottawa", which is a pretty big city (can take an hour to get from Rockland in the east end to Kanata in the west end), most people will still refer to their individual areas/neighbourhoods. So if you send mail to my parents, you can either address it "Orleans, Ontario" or "Ottawa, Ontario", and it'll still be there on time with no confusion. Unlike if you wrote "Kingston, Ontario" or "Toronto, Ontario", which are very very clearly different cities from Ottawa and not even close haha
• Anyways, Stacey says it takes about half an hour to get to Washington Mall, and it's in the next town over. This reminds me of how when I was younger, it was a super big deal for my parents to drive me 30 minutes to Kanata, where Bayshore Shopping Centre was, which was a much bigger and more upscale mall than the one that was within walking distance of our house in the east end haha
• You can tell that AMM wrote this one, because Kristy is totally likeable, easy to relate to, and well-rounded. She's excited for the dance, and while she expresses a general dislike of dresses, she likes the one she's going to wear to the dance and points out that it's only for a couple of hours. She's also excited about seeing Bart, although she's not too sure how much he means to her. Furthermore, she owns a bit of make-up and puts it on for Bart. This is a great call-back to Super Special #2.
• You know it's a Super Special because Claudia is dating an Asian guy haha Here, her date for the dance is a guy in her grade named Iri Mitsuhashi. And we never see or hear from him again... at least, I don't think so! haha
• Part of me can't believe that the Pikes would leave Mallory and Mary Anne in charge for almost 24 hours... but then another part of me is like, "No... this kinda makes sense..." They leave at 6am, and from there, there's only 2 hours or so until the kids are at school. No sense in making a neighbour spend the night for that. (Although I probably would have had a neighbour stop by at 7:30 or 8am to make sure that everyone was alive and indeed going to school haha) Then they're at school, and come home. It's not unusual for the girls to baby-sit after school or prepare dinner or baby-sit after dinner. It's just weird for them to be doing it all for one job. Again, I might have had a neighbour over for dinner or for a few hours in the evening. I definitely would have arranged for someone to check up on everyone at 9pm. And then the Pikes were supposed to be back at 1am or so. So yeahhhh... Barring the snowstorm, everything would have been okay. But I'm still surprised the Pikes were simply like, "Okay, the neighbours know we're gone, so give them a shout if you need them!" instead of being like, "Okay, the neighbours know we're gone. Mrs Barrett will check in on you in the morning and Mrs McGill will be by in the evening, and you have all the phone numbers, etc etc etc". 
• Stacey particularly wants to go to the Washington Mall, because otherwise, she might end up at the salon downtown, Gloriana's House of Hair. That salon was first featured Little Sister #8, Karen's Haircut. I remember reading that one as a child. It traumatized me. I was forced to have a bowl cut for most of my childhood, so when I could finally grow my hair out, the idea of it getting cut too short again and having to wait for it to grow out was my biggest fear. But yeah. I will never forget Gloriana's House of Horror haha
• There's an illustration of Bart in this one, and he does not look at all how I picture him (totes not my kind of guy! how he's pictured on the cover of #95 is more my style haha) but he does look like he could have been the older sibling of the kids I went to elementary school with (when this book was published)!
• This one also mentions Mallory's sleeping habits again
• The Pikes apparently wake up to an oldies radio station. The first song they wake up to is "Do Wah Diddy Diddy". I remember hearing this song randomly when my parents were watching Beverly Hills, 90210 (Brenda and her friends were dancing and singing it in the Peach Pit??). I became obsessed with that song, but of course, this was before the internet, so I had no idea what it was or who sang it or how to listen to it again. So this kinda became a "one that got away" type obsession. Whenever I hear it today, I'm still like, "OMG THIS SONG!!!" haha
• On a side note: I just found out that that show lasted until the year 2000! THE FREAKING YEAR 2000 WTF!!! I thought this show was long over by 1997. I mean, the high school they used is also the same high school they used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I didn't think that the two shows overlapped. Man, I know they say that Beverly Hills, 90210 is like, THE quintessential '90s show, but I had no idea that it was literally on for the entire decade. It ran from 1990 to 2000. It did not miss a single year of the '90s!
• They also mention that a snowfall this big could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, what with global warming and all. It's strange to think that even as far back as 1991, they were referencing global warming in kids' books. And we've still done very little about it =/
• I have no idea wtf "snow cream" is that Claudia makes for the Perkins girls (sounds like they're eating the fresh snow with maple syrup?) but if they were to have used fresh thick pure maple syrup, and not eaten the snow, they would have almost ended up with maple taffy haha
• I never go anywhere without a travel-sized toothbrush, at minimum 2 books, some granola bars, extra socks, extra underwear, a shawl, a flashlight and a lighter, and a bajillion other things, so if I had been in Dawn or Stacey's shoes, I would have been great haha
• Quint is crazy. Wtf. Even now I'd be hard pressed to try to find directions to walk somewhere in a new town during a snowstorm, let alone at age 11! I'm dying to know how far the dance school was from the train station. If it's anything like my city, Quint could have been walking for a good 30 minutes! If not more!
• Unless the coffee shop owner lived above the coffee shop, and unless the power was still out and milk and things were on the verge of spoiling, why the fuck would he open up the shop and give away a feast of free foods? How did he know that there were people stranded at the dance school? No one would have blamed him if he had just ignored them and gone on his way!
• I don't know if I would have trusted Mr Schiavone. I mean, I don't have to worry about diabetes, so it would just be a matter of staying warm for me. But yeahhhhh... just because he said he had a family in a house just up the street didn't mean he necessarily did. I remember being really scared for Stacey the first time I read this book, even though I knew that 1) these books would never get that dark (at the time, I hadn't read the one about drunk driving or child abuse or depression or anything) and that 2) the only ones that would potentially go that way would be the Mystery ones, so yeahhhh....
• Now, maybe it's because my house doesn't have 9 people in it... but even when I "really need" to go grocery shopping, I still have plenty of food in my house. I mean, nothing I could make a meal out of or that I would particularly want to live on, but definitely enough so I'm not starving. Boxes and boxes of crackers, a few cans of vegetables, soup and tuna (actually, I could live on soup), rice cakes... even without the staples like bread, eggs and milk, I'd be okay!