The Story of the Snowman
by: Jolene Jones
This story started when I talked to my brother, Cecil, in Texas. This was during the winter of 2017 and my brother was joking with me about sending him some snow since they rarely got any. This triggered a thought for me to make a snowman and mail it to him. The first snow here was a really wet one so I made this 9-inch snowman and stored it in the freezer. I checked on it every week and noticed after a few weeks it was showing stress. When we got another wet snow I added some to it. I did some checking about packing for shipment but learned that you can’t send dry ice in the US Mail. That meant I would have to ship it, which was too expensive. I made the decision to drive to Texas and deliver the ‘little guy’ personally. My sister, Valeta, agreed to ride along. We decided to make the drive at the end of March.
March came and I prepared the snowman for the drive to Texas. I packed him in a candle box that I had and put the box in the freezer. I looked online to see about dry ice, etc and got some good tips on helping it last longer.
I purchased 10 pounds of dry ice and placed it at the bottom of the cooler. On top of that, I had an insulated box that my son had sent roses in which proved to be a perfect home for the snowman. I put him in the box and added an ice pack and closed the box. I had read that regular ice will be colder because of the dry ice so I added a bag of regular ice on top and closed the cooler. I wrapped a sleeping bag around the cooler and proceeded on the trip to Monett, Missouri where my sister lived. This was on a Saturday and I stayed there until Sunday. Valeta and I left Monday, March 27, for the trip to Texas. On the afternoon of March 28, we got to Cecil and Colina’s home. They met us in the driveway. I told them they needed to go back to the house as I had a surprise for them. I got the snowman out of the cooler and was amazed that there was a little dry ice left and the ice pack in the box was hard as a rock. The ice in the bag on top had barely started to melt. The dry ice lasted 3 ½ days when the brochure said 48 hours. I guess the extra handling made the difference! I had not opened the ice chest since leaving home. (I would reach under the cooler each day to see if it was still ice cold.) I put the snowman on a plate and presented it to Cecil. They both liked it and Colina took it out in 80-degree weather to show her neighbors! When they brought it back inside, I told them they could just watch it melt but Colina had another idea. She put the snowman in their freezer so now when they opened the freezer door, there was the ‘little guy’ looking back at them!
