I'm not sure what's happening with schools here in western Washington. I have seen the short bus come by over the last couple of days, so at least some special-ed school must be open. I haven't seen the regular busses,though.
@BassWrangler Give it 6 months,and this is going to have a huge effect on the sales of luxury items like new 4x4's to tool around town with,cruises,vacations in Europe,and other "don't have ta have" items families with two incomes have came to accept as normal.
This includes the sale of Mini-Mansions in upscale neighorhoods,as people wake up and realize that you really CAN'T "live beyond your means",as the song says.
I am guessing by now that savings are at an all-time low,too. No such thing as "extra money" anymore now that mom doesn't have a paycheck coming in because she has to stay home and take care of the kids due to school closings.
Even those few couples lucky enough to have had money in savings,stock,rental property,etc,etc,etc,AND who worked two jobs are going to look around and realize "If it happened once,it can happen twice,and it CAN be worse next time. Ifn ah doan wanna be liv-in doawn by da railrode tracks,ah needs ta cut back on da careless spendin."
I am GUESSING there are a lot of couples out there in their mid-30's to mid-50's who have never known or ever even expected to know the fear that can hit you the first time you go to pay your monthly bills due to good jobs,families helping them out when they first got married,etc,etc,etc. Even if they didn't personally experience it this time,they pretty much have to have someone in their families or circle of friends that lost everything.
I am talking about normal middle-class people whose parents may have even given them credit cards when they were in high school,and thought nothing of it.
As most of you know,there can be things happen unexpectedly in even middle-class families that can wipe out their savings and max out their credit cards.
If you are one of those people who grew up thinking "That can never happen to ME!" it can come as a tremendous shock when it does.
The world has really turned around since the day of my parents who grew up during the Depression and were such trend-setters they were already poor when did,and the people today who grew up carrying credit cards in their wallets while they were still in elementary school.
Neither one of my parents EVER had so much as a checking account or a savings account in their entire lives,yet they FIRMLY believed in never buying anything not absolutely necessary,and saving as much as they could so they would be "ready when the next depression hits!" They literally had a local grocer save their money for them in his store safe,and if they needed something "not in budget",they would ask him for the cash to pay for it while they were shopping for groceries.
They didn't even finance any of the new cars or new trucks they bought once they were in a position to be able to buy such luxuries. When they were ready to buy,they just stopped off at the grocer on their way to the dealership.