Bringing Back Blanket Day
I don't remember the exact conversation, because it was a long time ago now. But the circumstances were something like this:
My best friend and I were in tenth grade, our first year in high school. It was mid autumn, it was cold, it was rainy, and frankly going to school had lost that sparkle. We decided there should be one day every school year where you're allowed to wear your pajamas to school and have a big comfy blanket as well. And we decided it should be “the first Friday after the first cold, miserable day of each fall.” So we told our friends that next Friday was the first Annual Blanket Day. We were heavily involved in choir which gave us an advantage; the choir program in our school ran to almost three hundred people, a goodly portion of the entire school.
That first year a few dozen people showed up in PJs and had big blankets. When people asked what was going on we explained the concept of Blanket Day and reveled in others' wish that they had thought it up first. My mother had sewn “footie pajamas”, the kind you dress small babies in, for me and my best friend, which took a lot of fleece; we were both over six feet tall even then.
Blanket Day our junior year was a bigger deal; we announced it earlier and people were more aware of it. It was fun to see hundreds of people in PJs and blankets wandering the halls of our school. Our senior year, to my everlasting pride and joy, there were several teachers who took part in the annual festivity.
We didn't ever officially describe a date for Blanket Day, and since the determination of “the first cold miserable day of fall” was more or less up to my best friend and me the holiday didn't survive our graduation.
However, It seems like this year is a good year to bring it back, just in the world at large, not just at our high school. Given that cold, miserable days are local affairs Blanket Day is too. But if anyone's interested, I'm declaring Friday, November 13th, 2020, as Blanket Day. Wear PJs in your zoom meetings. Keep a big warm blanket wrapped around yourself. See if you can get it to catch on in your office or school or whatever. We can all use some warm and cozy traditions right about now.
I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload. You can join in yourself by visiting 100 Days To Offload.
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