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IGLOO ASSISTANCE
AVAILABLE : Experienced Igloo builder. Cool service guaranteed.
Maybe you have noticed that the weather people are predicting unusually heavy amounts of snow, rather rain this winter in the Eastern section of the nation as a result of El Nino’s presence once more. Just in case you need some help in constructing any igloos you may have in mind around the place, I stand ready to help.
The last igloo I remember building with the real stuff was constructed during the winter of ‘28, I think, and it was a doozie with lots of perfect snow available over an extended period. We may have had El Nino
pushing the “Snow” buttons, then, too, but we didn’t know it at the time.
Even the mountains of southwestern Virgjnia were not igloo country in those days, so building such a structure was a real adventure for boys our ages and a novelty for the community we found. It was part of our natural way, in those times, of making our own “toys”and having without spending money.
We rolled large balls of wet snow down the long hill near the area in which we intended to build. We then sliced those large, round snow balls into sections and placed them in a circle which was to be our igloo wall. In previous attempts at smaller versions, we had found we usually had a roof problem, so we fudged a little, which is a better-sounding term than “cheating,” by getting several long, wide boards to put across the walls to hold the ceiling in place. We did not get the icy content blocks needed to keystone such an arched roof properly, so we “re-arranged “ things a bit.
We piled snow on top of the board “lid” and that very night it snowed again and presented the world with a neatly rounded mound the next morning with no sign of any protruding woodwork at all.
We had a crawl-in door tunnel, bent slightly toward the East to allow the morning sun to ooze in a bit, and to forbid passage to the crusty north wind. Inside, we had cardboard on the trampled snow floor having worked the wall building from the inside area with that purpose in mind. We had blankets over the cardboard and we cut a small vent in the back wall area under which, half way down the wall , to vent black smoke, we mounted a fat, red, wax candle for light and heat. It is amazing how comfortable an ice house can be with several candles going, plus body heat - and plenty of warm, winter clothing
The room had about five feet or so of standing-up room in the center, and it tapered upward at the sides all around, of course.
We lived on the main street of our town, so automobile and wagon traffic slowed down to look at our “igloo” as did the town’s one and only street car (mysteriously labeled “No.11”) and we could see people
pointing at our ice house and when they waved to us we waved back as proud owners of the town’s only igloo!
After a few warmer nights and some sunny days, the cheat boards began to show and we tore the roof off and magically transformed the walls into a fort defending the area from all encrochments by snowball
wielding enemy forces. Records show that we would have held the fort, too, had not both sides run out of ammunition.
A.L.M. September 28, 2002 [c590wds]
