We are having the second snowstorm of the week. I woke up thinking of snowmen. Last year I read The History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein and was fascinated by the historic facts presented of the snowman. The author really did a good job, searching art museums throughout the world, looking for the first sign of a snowman. Because of the nature of snowmen (they melt) there was little seen of them in art, but then in the 15th century they started to appear in winter scenes.

Their history is a shady one, snowball throwing started the American Revolution with the Boston Massacre...some boys threw snowballs at the British soldiers. Also, a fort in upstate New York was attacked by Indians when the men, during a snowstorm, left the fort guarded by just two snowmen. Early snowmen were both snow men and ladies, and some of them were quite risque. The snowman really became popular in the 19th and 20th century in advertisements. They advertised everything from cars, to candy, to alcohol and not one snowman ever made a penny for representing a product. (Unlike Tiger Woods who up until recently made millions of dollars by endorsing products!) Bob Eckstein called the years from 1975-2000 the "white trash years" of the snowmen, with Hollywood making movies, not only cartoons, but bloody killer Snowman movies and snowmen being exploited all over the place.

The Guiness Book of records lists the people of Bethel Maine as building the largest snowman. They keep breaking their own record, no one challenges them. The latest was a snow lady, 122 feet and 1 inch high. I think they are working on another one right now. Anyway, when I read the book I thought what a wonderful project for Tivoli, not the biggest, but maybe the most snowmen in a Village. Everyone could go to the park, or maybe just make a snowman in their yard, or maybe a whole crowd of snowmen.

Then this morning I had another thought...snowmen in the cemetery. We just finished decorating Maria's grave with a grave blanket, so the cemetery was on my mind. Any what better place to make snowmen? Lots of space, no one would bother them. They would get people to gather in a place that used to be used by families to picnic and spend time with their departed families. And, I bet Guiness doesn't have any record of the largest number of snowmen made in a cemetery. January 18th is World Day of the Snow Man (a fact I stumbled on in the internet) so I think a snowman -at least one - will show up in the cemetery on that day.