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III. Summer Snowmen (to the max)

After high school it was sort of about America, but not really. We would all be voting in the upcoming presidential election. We would soon be debating in emails about Gore or Nader (Greg would be the only Bush supporter). We had all recieved our Selected Service letters, registered for the draft, and registered for college. And Aaron and Charlie, aka Tommy Shovelface and Roger Sled, had gone ahead and registered for the 4th of July parades as well, in three suburbs, under the moniker Summer Snowmen. It came about because one day during the summer they put on all their heaviest winter clothes and pulled sleds through downtown LaGrange sipping hot chocolate ordered from Starbucks, and apparently it created a bit of a scene, something about almost being arrested, I don't know. Also it came about because Aaron says that he always regretted not doing the parade with us when we were the TFMBRC, but that he was inspired by the idea of it, of making up an organization for the sake of existing in the parade.

The Summer Snowmen! Was it about America? "USA, figure 8, USA, figure 8" Or absurdity? "when I say frostbite you say bad…frostbite, bad! frostbite, bad!" Or snow? "what do we want? snow! when do we want it? now!" We passed out pamphlets on frostbite awareness. We did chants and ran formations. We ran and jumped on plastic sleds and slid down the street. We banged shovels on the pavement to work up excitement. None of it was planned at the beginning really, only that we would wear heavy winter gear and sweat a lot. The rest just developed as the parade moved, like with the TFMBRC. Aaron developed a character where he'd pretend like he was competing in an olympic event and he'd try for perfect form as he slid and then when he'd get up he would put his hands in the air like he just won something and he'd bow to the crowd and say "thank you, thank you". So graceful. A couple years later he broke his nose doing it. One year I had a bruised hip for six months.

We both retired from our sledding positions. Now that the organization has grown so much we have a division of labour. Aaron's, or rather, Tommy Shovelface's new job is snowball guy. He plops a cooler full of snow in front of a gathering of kids and tells them to throw snowballs at him. My position is uncertain now. One year it was carry a block of ice with an American flag frozen in it on your head guy. But that gave me frostbite...in July! My snowman name is Iggy Igloo. All Summer Snowmen get names now. Some others are Billy Rocksalt, Yoshi Yellowsnow, Thurston Two-Toes, Italian Ice, Yohannes Frostbitten. For the debut year we were six. By the third year we were about twenty. And that's about where we seem to stay, subtracting all the MIA's and adding in all the rookies each year. We're going on seven years now. We made a pact for ten.

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