A Snow Memory - 1/24/11 - Written by Mike Ladue

Early morning frost

Weed covered in ice at Cape Vincent boat launch

An Outdoorsman’s view on the River 
Mike Ladue is a Cape Vincent resident who observes and writes about river life.

The heart of winter does not have a lot of heart this year. Arctic fronts have been harassing my efforts to enjoy the outdoors, keeping me close to the cabin. I have been getting brief exposures of vitamin “D” from the sun, while keeping the driveway clear. Of course it is hard to get much while being dressed in several layers of outer garments. My nose and cheeks have the burden of absorbing the limited amount of sunshine present. I keep everything else under tight wraps.

Yesterday I went out to clear the drifts in the afternoon. Negative five degrees and I felt like the Pillsbury dough boy waddling about and eventually turned just as white as he. The snow was blowing out of the snow thrower, in a shower, like fine sand. It did not matter where I pointed the (convenient?) adjustable shoot. The light breeze found a way to send the fluttering cloud to settle on to me. Just like my efforts to avoid the smoke of a campfire, always in vain. At least I was able to keep the snow from worming its way down the back of my neck. That is the worst place to take the winter’s melting tangible breath.

I took to remembering my youthful years when the snow was as welcome as a summer swim.  The building of snow men, snow forts and snow angels kept me outdoors for hours, oblivious to the cold. The only way to keep warm was to be active, all of the time! My winter cloths consisted of two pairs of blue jeans, three pairs of socks, home made mittens and thin pair of black buckle boots. Those boots were cold from the time that I put them on and had the thermal value of ice. When my siblings were unaware I would borrow a coat or scarf to add a layer of comfort. How I never suffered from frost bite is still a mystery to me.

Most days I would be by myself or my older sister would join me in snow bound fun. Everything would start out innocent enough, with us working on a project. Snow men were always different and size was determined by the snow quality, the wetter the better. We would add sticks for arms, coal for eyes and eat the carrot that was meant for the nose. Coal worked ok for the nose or a short blunt stick would do the trick. With an inanimate object standing in front of us it was only natural to chose it as a target. We would fire snow balls to see who could knock off the nose and arms. Wouldn’t you know that one of those snow balls would suddenly, without warning smack my sister on the back of her head?

Suddenly her demeanor would become down right mean, as if I had perpetrated the event with some thoughtful reasoning! Her aim was never as good as mine and distance made her effort all the more frustrating for her. Her remedy was to close the gap; I mean bare down on me like a tornado. At ten feet she would find her mark, plastering my face with a stinging zinger! Caught up in the moment she was unable to call it even yet. Her next move was to take two fists full of snow and ram them home between my hat, scarf and back.

You would think that that would have satisfied hers sense of balance on the issue of my careless (unintended) action. No,No,No… Now she had to hold all of that snow firmly in place while I hollered and squealed, as it turned into ice water. The trickle would then saturate its way down my back into areas that were sacred to me. At that point I had no other reasonable choice but to return the favor. Her wailing was much more original than mine and could attract a crowd from as far as a ¼ mile away! Some neighborhood kids would scurry to watch the ruckus and take sides, as I said the event was a day long affair. Snow balls flew followed by thuds, thumps and laughter. None of us ever called it quits until the sunset and we never were any warmer than on those days in winters gone by.

Thanks to my sister I learned early on what a girl was capable of doing and avoided any close contact with them (for some time) there after. But wouldn’t you know that I had many more similar, pleasurable episodes with the opposite gender in those same circumstances. Go figure?