Yes they may be one of the greatest products ever created. Them and peanut butter.

Three inches of snow closed the schools?

Wussies.

Kathy, there's ice in that snow, but it doesn't take much for schools to close around here. Cold closed school last winter.

I have a pair of similar boots from Eddie Bauer that I've had for about 10 years. They still look and feel brand new despite the blizzard here in '96 and 5 snowy winters in New Hampshire. Love them.

I agree, I've seen more white stuff on the shoulders of skeezy people riding the bus than I do when I look out at the ground outside my window.

I love those boots - but I need a new pair. Of course, it's only during the storms of the century that I remember that I need new boots. Invariably this also coincides when everyone else remembers THEY need a new pair. And thusly, Bean is out of my size.

I need to remember to order them in July.

Mine date from 1983. Going to put them on later when I go get the mail. I've replaced the laces a few times; but otherwise they're as good as new.

I love my Bean boots. I really love that that they are guaranteed for life with a very no questions asked return policy.

Damn sexy.

No, really.

I received my first pair as a "going away to college" gift, and used them (rubber bottoms replaced four times) for twenty years. The second pair are still in service.

Jen,

I realize it's all relative, and ice is another story entirely, but still... I know I live in Minnesota, but it takes 17 inches of snow to close the schools for the entire day here. You can, hopefully, understand why I'd call people wussies after that. Even on that particular day, the school officials hemmed and hawed about it. Ultimately it came down to the fact that most people couldn't get out of their streets. Plowing here is an adventure. One plow comes by and does all the main drags, but in the process blocks in the side streets, which remain blocked in until another plow comes to clean them out. Usually this takes a couple of hours, and the schools take this into account---hence instead of cancelling the whole day, they just delay the start by a couple of hours. That day, well, there was simply too much of the white stuff to deal with.

That was in 1999, by the way. And that's the last time they cancelled the whole shebang. Before that, the last time they cancelled school was on the order of the governor, because it was too cold outside---his order went statewide---because it was, at the warmest, -20 below. Without windchill.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but that boot style was never popular when I was growing up in Southern Oregon. I never really saw them until I went to college in Indiana.

I can't remember not having my pair of Bean boots, but I can remember having to jam an extra pair of socks into the toes so they'd fit snugly when I originally got them.

And Kathy, no apologizing for the "wussies" crack. I was going snark happy in the local deli last night when I watched people stocking up on stuff as if a bizzard was heading into town while I waited in line for a pack of smokes. We ended up with, maybe, a bit more than three inches of the stuff here on Staten Island that was summarily dispatched from my driveway and sidewalk in under ten minutes. But some folks now have milk, canned goods and bottled water that'll last 'em till New Year's Day.

Kathy, I am with ya, believe me. As a childless taxpayer, it really grates on my nerves when they close schools to easily here. I spent 5 winters in New Hampshire. The town I lived in closed school for one day after we got more than 12" of snow. One day in 5 years.

...close schools so easily...I meant to say.