Childhood

The Greatest Snowball Ever Thrown

You will have to trust me on this

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

I will immodestly state that sometime in the mid to late 1950’s, I threw a snowball that cannot have been matched in all of human history. I have no evidence, no witnesses, and of course, no video. You will have to take my word as a gentleman.

The incident took place, as you would expect, in winter. I was walking from our home to the center of town, which was not far away. There were two ways I could go; either Billings Street, which would take me past the store fronts, or High Street, which was behind. I chose High Street that day.

Part way down High Street a long driveway runs down to the parking lot behind the stores. The distance is approximately 150 feet, which is pertinent to this story.

I was at the entrance to that driveway when a snowball hit me squarely on the back of my neck. It was not an iceball, fortunately, just a reasonably soft snowball, but it did sting and the cold snow went down my collar. I swirled around as two older kids ran by me laughing and continued down the driveway.

I bent down and packed a snowball into my glove. As I stood up, I saw that my assailants were almost out of sight as they neared the parking lot. It would be nearly impossible to throw my snowball…