Salford Snowman & Snowball Riots
This day started out like many others, waking at an unspeakable time of the day, sometime around noon. Life in the little world of Castle Irwell continued, music was played, beer consumed and many games played. A good time was had by all inside house 55. With the evening drawing in the wonderful weather of this country threw us a surprise, a steady fall of snow. For a while people carried on preparing their evening meals and consuming more beer. However at approximately 23:30 on that night something happened that will go down in history...
With a surprising regression back to childhood around 150 students had what can only be described as a war! Yes, a immense snowball fight that shall not happen again on this scale for a very long time. You may think to yourself that this can not be that newsworthy you may have been right. Until, that is, the minor fracas spilled out onto the public highway, enveloping anyone that dared to stray into it's path. With the local public in severe danger from snowy mortars, Greater Manchester police decided to show their presence and quash the uprising. With a swift end to this debacle in mind two riot vans were dispatched to deal with the student population, however on reaching the scene they soon became the victims of the rampaging students. Eventually things began to settle down and life return to something resembling normality.
This event did not pass unnoticed, it became front page news, of the local paper that is, the local student paper!
However, the night's activities were not over for a couple of the residents of Castle Irwell.
At around 02:00 the same night, it was decided that this opportunity could not go to waste and with most of the days consumption keeping us warm and providing us with the jovial spirit to accomplish our task we set out on our long hike to the rear of the house. Upon reaching our destination we soon found enough snow had fallen to build The Greatest Snowman Man Had Ever Seen. With the construction skills of an engineering student and the attention to detail of an acoustics student we had no limits.
 |
Using traditional methods both the head and body were rolled until the desired size were achieved. Towards the end the body required both of us to push it around the field. The head weighed a surprising amount but was placed and secured to the body with care. |
 |
With the structure complete details were added. The obvious sticks for arms and mouth. With the absence of coal crushed beers cans were used for eyes and buttons. And not finding a carrot in our kitchen a pepper was used instead. A simple hat, scarf and glove combo completed the effect. |
 |
Out of the darkness a new life was born, that of The Greatest Snowman Man Had Ever Seen, his name? Henry. Why? No-one knows, that's just what he liked to be called. At around 04:00 our task was complete, we stood back to take in the sight of our creation. it was magnificent. It towered above... well the ground really. But I can honestly say it was the best snowman I have ever built. We were happy, we were content with our achievement, we were still rather drunk.
Henry and His Friends
© Chris Dodd 2006-2008: Most Rights Reserved.