The misshapen snowman

Ah . . the first snowfall of winter. There was something magical about it, just as there was when you were a kid. It was wonderful at first to see the snowfall but all right, we’ve had enough already.

This is the season of the misshapen snowman. The fluctuating temperatures provide both the perfect setting for snowman-building, and a factor of its inevitable thaw. These snow sculptures stand tall for their public, hard packed and solid. Then the heat of the sun turns them bleak and frail.

At first, my nephew’s snowman had that rundown look, a tad unrecognizable. Looking in the yard now you would question: What could that clump of snow be? Was it an occasional heap of winter rubble? Now it is mixed with leaves and dirt. It takes a second glance to know this shapeless statue was once a snowman.

Finally the snowman is a non descriptive icon of snow. In fact, it looked as if it was near a microwave — nuked.

There was a precious persona even in its disintegration. In the snowman’s short life, my nephew built a monument to the winter blahs, for however long or short it was.

Nancee Harrison is a past columnist for the Greene County Daily World. Visit www.blondeladywithdarkroots.com or email her at blondeladywithdarkroots@gmail.com or send comments to Nancee, Daily World, box 129 Linton IN 47441.