It’s snowing. The weather forecasters did a good job of frightening us into stocking our refrigerators, cancelling our plans and parking our cars.
The 159th Academy of Music Concert and Ball in Philadelphia was canceled for the first time in history. The airport closed and the governor issued a State of Emergency.
It’s beautiful when I can stay in and watch mother- nature create her winter master piece through the window. Snuggled on my big red sofa with a mug of French vanilla hot cocoa I remembered snowstorms from my childhood.
I grew up in Lorraine Gardens, a tight knit neighborhood in the Somerton section of North Philadelphia. My father worked the 3pm-11pm shift as the VIP rep for Eastern Airlines at the Philadelphia Airport. Because storms were the busiest time at the airport we would sometimes not see dad for days. Those very important people needed first class attention in the event of travel delays.
When I think of snow and my childhood, I remember a lot of it. I remember the Acme parking lot at the top of Delray Street and watching as plows pushed enough snow against light poles to create frozen mountains. My siblings, cousins, friends and I would run to the top, jump from one to the other and slide down and climb back up those mountains for hours, sometimes days.
In January of 1966 a typical nor’easter, much like the one we are having now dumped so many inches so quickly that dad could not get his little red Metropolitan out of the driveway, let alone down the Schuylkill Expressway. I-95 was still being built at that time. He had no choice but to stay home.
The first thing he did was build us an igloo in the back yard. It had three rooms. We hung curtains and put in throw rugs to sit on. We played in our snowy castle all day.
As the sun started to go down I asked my dad to build a snow man for me, in front of the igloo. My sister, brother and I went inside to warm up and eat dinner. By the time dad came in it was dark. He told us to come over and look out the back door.
In front of the igloo was a snowman wearing a green hat. Dad put a flash light under the hat so it was glowing. I fell in love with that snowman and that is one of my happiest memories with my dad.
Last year around this time, I was working as a caregiver to an elderly, bed ridden woman. I sat by her bed and told her it started to snow. She smiled as she told me story after story of snowy day memories from her childhood in central Pennsylvania. It happened to be the one-year-anniversary of my dad’s passing that day and I had been fighting tears all day. I told her the story of the snowman with the bright green hat and I could no longer fight the tears.
Not wanting her to see me cry I decided to go to the window and take a picture of the snow for her. When I got back to her bedside and showed her the photo this is what we both saw.
Thank you for building me a snowman, Dad!
12 thoughts on “The Snowman…”
Just wow! This gives me chills….but in a good way! A beautiful winter story, Doreen….and the picture touches my heart. I do believe and I love that you have this proof! Thank you for sharing your memories….brought back memories of my own. Well done!
Thank you Joan, I still get the chills when I see this photo.
Growing up in the Midwest and then moving to the West Coast, I miss the snow…..sometimes. It’s pretty but has its drawbacks. So far this winter we have had 1/4″ of snowfall and it is in the 50’s today.
I love the snow when I’m safely tucked inside, its beautiful!
That igloo is AMAZING! Can’t wait to try it with all the snow here in NJ from this weekend. Great post!
That igloo was fabulous!
I would have loved to have built an igloo! We were good at snowman building, being raised in Western NY’s snow belt. Oh, the memories!
Doesn’t it seem like it snowed throughout the whole winter back then. Its funny how a memory of one snowstorm is so big we remember it as the whole winter.
Such an amazing story, Doreen. No coincidences!!!! BTW, finished your wise book when my electric came flack’ Brava!
Thank you so much Cathy. I hope you didn’t have any more power issues, too cold for that!
So neat! I love settling in and reading as you tell a story. I always know I am in for a treat. Thank you for sharing your memories and your snowman!
Thank you Terri. The snowman still makes me teary when I see it.