Snowbound - Super Special #7

Another of my favorite Super Specials, and this one has a personal story attached.  I remember I took my copy of this to the salon to read while I was getting my first and only perm (rockin' the Stacey style).  This would have been 4th, maybe 5th grade.  This book kept me entertained during that long process.  However, unfortunately, when we left the salon, I managed to forget "Snowbound" as well.  By the time of my next visit, it had disappeared into oblivion.  This was a life-defining tragedy for me.


So, a heavy snowstorm is called for on Wednesday, which no one takes seriously because multiple snowfalls have been predicted and nothing ever materialized.  So school continues as usual, with the Winter Wonderland dance planned for Friday.  As Wednesday evening hits, the snow starts to fall.  It was a dark and stormy night...then the power goes out....

Stoneybrook Snowpocalypse Breakdown:

Mary Anne and Mallory:  They are babysitting for the Pike family overnight while the Pike parents escape to New York City (with 8 kids, I'd take every chance for an adult getaway while I could, too).  Of course, Mrs. Pike mentions before she leaves that there is hardly any food left, which I'm sure will have no bearing on the story whatsoever (yeah, right, we know AMM better than that).  So, the Pike parents get stuck in NYC, and the kids run out of food Thursday morning.  This always stuck me as such a crisis when I was younger, however it turns out there was actually plenty of food, just not food the kids liked (who wants to eat frozen broccoli?  Um, I do...).   Thursday afternoon, Logan, the knight in shining armor, cross country skis over to the Pike house with a backpack full of food, crisis averted.

Kristy:  invites Bart, her kinda-sorta boyfriend, over to watch movies (Uncle Buck and Back to the Future, I'm impressed that real movies are listed here) and to have dinner with her family.  Snow falls, Bart must sleep over at the McMansion (Kristy freaks out about Bart seeing her in her pajamas, that so would have been me at 13, too).  The next morning, Kristy sets her alarm for 5:30 so that she can get pretty (including curling her hair and putting on makeup) before Bart wakes up.  Kristy actually acts like a girly girl for once.

Claudia: babysitting for the Perkins (Myriah, Gabbie, and baby Laura), the Perkins adults get stuck at their friends' house overnight.  Biggest adventure here is that the dog, Chewbacca, gets shut in the basement overnight.

Dawn:  she and her mother make a white-knuckle drive to the airport to pick up Jeff from California, but his flight has been diverted to DC, so they must spend the night in the airport waiting for him to come the next morning.  His flight lands around lunchtime, everything is hunky-dory.

Jessi:  stuck at dance school rehearsing for "The Nutcracker" (she's the King of Mice).  Her romantic interest, Quint, was on the train from New York City to go to the school dance on Friday with her. Quint's train makes it to town, but Mr Ramsey isn't there to pick him up, so he walks to the dance studio (umm...what adult transit employee would let an 11 year old boy walk away in a blizzard, even if the dance studio is only a few blocks away?  As Cher Horowitz would say, "That's a lawsuit waiting to happen!!").  All of kids spend the night at the dance school, Jessi and Quint help babysit.

Stacey: she and her mom get caught in storm on the way back from the mall (Stace had to get a fresh perm for the dance, of course).  They get off the highway to avoid wrecks and get stuck on the back roads (ok, my Midwest winter driving tip here - don't get off the highways unless you have a four wheel drive, because the highways tend to get pretreated with salt and sand better, and tend to get plowed first.  Now you know, Mrs. McGill, and knowing is half the battle).  A stranger stops and invites them to spend the night with him and his wife.  Instead of Texas Chainsaw massacre, they get Norman Rockwell, aka the Schiavones.

After the blizzard, totaling 28 inches of snowfall, everyone is reunited with their families, school reopens on Friday, and the Winter Wonderland dance carries on as planned.


Winter Wonderland Dance:

Kristy - going with Bart Taylor, her on/off boyfriend and rival softball coach; when Kristy asks what Bart is wearing to the dance, he says his suit is "puce" - I don't even know if I knew what color that was at 13, so a 13 year old boy?  Doubtful.

Mary Anne - Logan Bruno, of course (ladies love Southern boys)

Claudia - going with Iri Mitsuhashi, someone we never hear about again

Dawn - Price Irving, whose fate in this series resembles Iri's

Stacey - Austin Bentley, who I think has been mentioned before

Jessi - Quint Walter, the ballet dancer she meets in the New York Super Special - BSC time warp alert: Jessi meets Quint over the summer vacation (after 6th grade), but now this is the winter of 6th grade again...it's like Stoneybrook Groundhog school year.

Mallory - Ben Hobart, the boy wonder from Down Under, her on/off boyfriend of the series

What Claudia wore:
"I'd bought this black velvet knicker outfit and was going to wear it with a lot of silver jewelry, including snowflake earrings."  I guess that's a knicker outfit?  Looks almost like Hammer pants (I can neither confirm nor deny that I may or may not have had a red pair of Hammer pants in 4th grade.)

Other than Stacey's LBD (note the lack of curly hair, too), all the other dresses look like 80's bridesmaid dresses - I hope at least one of them has a butt bow.