At a time
of year when many people in Utah dream of white, sandy beaches, there are
others who travel from afar to experience Utah’s claim to fame: beautiful,
powdery snow. They seem like polar opposites (mostly because one is associated
with warm weather and the other with freezing temperatures), but snow is a lot
like sand in some respects. While playing in them, they tend to find their way
into every opening of your clothing. You can easily bury your friends up to
their heads in either substance. My most favorite aspect of the two, though, is
that you can make sculptures out of them. Sand is relatively hard to shape into
anything other than a one-foot high “castle.” Snow is a little bit easier to
work with, especially if the snow is somewhere between powder and slush.
Snowmen are
the most common snow sculptures. Despite their ordinary nature, they are highly
customizable. If ten children made ten snowmen at the same time, no two would
be alike. Sure, most of them would have rocks for eyes and stick arms, but one
would probably have a larger head than its torso, another would have half a
back end and one would appear to have just survived a squirrel attack. Not only
do snowmen come in all shapes and sizes, they’re extremely fun to destroy, but
only if you created them. I can’t tell you how many snowmen I’ve lost to the
mean kid down the street who walks around searching solely for victims made out
of snow. There should be a law limiting the destructor of a snowman to its
creator (the last thing every snowman hears before the destruction begins: “I
brought you into this world…”).
One year my
elementary school had a snow sculpture contest. Snowmen were unacceptable
offerings, so all the schoolchildren had to reach deep inside and pull out
their imaginations. All of us kids were on teams of four or more, which was
supposed to multiply the power of our imaginations (since so many of them had
been dulled by the colorful world of television). The sculptures ranged from
cars to castles to dogs. When it was all said and done, though, the grand prize
went to me and my five friends for our amazing rendition of a shark attack. In
the middle of our scene was a rowboat with one oar missing and two chunks taken
out of its sides. Four sharks moved toward the boat, two with opening mouths.
There was one kid in my group, Danny, who had orchestrated the whole thing. His
passion for sharks and snow sculptures led us to create the extremely fun scene,
and I’ve never forgotten how much I enjoyed that day. I imagine Danny is
probably out there sculpting snow sharks right now.
When you
find yourself dreaming of little umbrellas in pina coladas and the sound of the
ocean lapping the soft sands of some beach in Tahiti or Barbados, snow may not be
the best alternative to your dream, but at least you can have fun with it. I
hope you can enjoy giving a snowman life only to turn him into the target of
your snowball barrage, and if snowmen are too commonplace for you, I wish you
the best in creating a masterpiece worthy of the snow sculpture hall of fame.
Have a blast and take care not to let snow find its way down your pants!
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