The snowman and the blue sapphire stone

The snowman and the blue sapphire stone

 As fables and folk lore go from one family to another, it was believed that an old man by the name of Mr. Peters, lived In the winter of 1941 in an old mining cave near Leadville, Colorado.  At the first snow, he use to come out very late at night and walk the streets, destroying snowmen the kids would build.  Heart- broken, the kids would rebuild, only to have it destroyed again by old man Peters again.  He was such a mean, unhappy man who never had a wife or children. His beady eyes thinning hair and crooked nose made him look so evil to the kids, they use to wish he would go into one of the mining caves and become an icicle so he could never scare them or destroy their snowmen again.

One day the first snow fell and the kids were eager to get outside to build the biggest snowman ever for the winter festival contest.  Blake Lockleys lived across the street from my grandmother. Their yard was selected that year for the snowman, so all the kids on the block were there helping to build it.

Everyone was so excited to help make it.  One neighbor contributed a black hat, one contributed a plaid scarf and oversized red jacket, and one even contributed a walking cane and mining boots. The kids used charcoal for the eyes and a piece of pine wood for the nose. Grandmother Lovey gave them a blue Sapphire stone from an old broken ring she had, because the legend was that a blue sapphire stone would give the snowman life for five nights.

The snowman, as legend had it, would change the lives of people who needed to be changed for the better. This was their chance to ask it to change old man Peters from a mean old man to a nicer old man.

It was sunset and getting dark. No one knew exactly how tall the snowman was after their almost final touches. To the kids it was a giant. All that was left to finish were the arms and the smoothing of the face. Since the kids had to get a couple of old wooden chairs to stand in to do the face, one side of its face, was comically larger than the other side, so the kids decided to leave it alone until the next morning because the festival judges would visit each neighborhood to make a decision for the best and biggest snowman to win.  Their neighborhood was the first one on the judges list. If theirs was selected, each family on the block would receive a food basket and a turkey, since all of the kids from that neighborhood helped to make the snowman, it was only fair to award each family a gift.

As the sun began to set, one of the kids looked up at the sky and shouted out to the rest of the kids, "look at the ribbons of color in the sky!  I believe that the winter fairy is telling us she likes our snowman!”  At the same time all of the kids looked up at the beautiful hues of color, from the winter sunset.  They had never seen anything quite like that before. They were so fascinated and had their eyes fixed on the sky, they never saw old man Peters walk up on them. They bunched up together as they moved backwards away from him.  He laughed at them, coughed and spat at their snowman.

He told them in an hateful, nasty voice, "You kids won't win that contest because I am going to melt your snowman tonight with my magic wand".

He never had a magic wand, but the kids believed he did.  As they ran screaming, they all turned once more to look at him stand and stare at the snowman, laughing at him.

When he finally moved away from the area, the kids ran back to the snowman.  

Each one of the children gave the snowman a kiss as they passed by it and left a piece of candy or whatever they had in their pockets as a snack for it to eat when it came to life. One of the girls took the blue Sapphire stone and buried it under the right foot of the snowman. 

She whispered to it, "This magic blue stone will give you life to fight old man Peters who plans to destroy you tonight.  Please come alive and help us win, to help feed our families".

Now confident that since she did that, the snowman would come alive and keep old man Peters from destroying it.

Around midnight, old man Peters came back to the snowman.  He had an old thick oak limb he used as a walking stick.  Just as he raised the limb to strike the face of the snowman, something extraordinary happened.  The snowman grabbed the stick from him and threw it so far; it disappeared into the dark winter night. Old man Peters was in a state of shock. He shook his head as if in disbelief. He pulled out from under his tattered jacket another stick and attempted to strike the snowman in the belly.  The snowman snatched that stick and threw it into the darkness.  Old man Peters began to pound the snowman with its fists. Suddenly, the snowman reached down and grabbed old man peters and held him upside down as he began to walk out of the yard.  There was a loud laugh the snowman blurted out that awakened the children.  As they looked out of their windows, they witnessed that the snowman really did come alive to protect itself that night.  All of the kids ran out of their house to follow the snowman to a spot where there was a lot of snow.  It waved the blue stone in the air as it continued to hold old man Peters upside down.  He yelled and fussed and shouted, but no one could hear him except the children and the snowman. Within seconds, seven snow horses came to life and stood next to each of the kids.  The kids got on the horses, the snowman took old man Peters to a partially frozen lake, not too far from the kid’s houses.  It began to dip old man Peters up and

Down in the icy water as the kids watched.  When it was over, the snowman dropped Old man Peters in the snow and walked backed to the front yard it was built on.  The kids were taken back to their yards by the ice horses.  The snowman told them in a voice that rumbled like thunder, "thank you for the snacks.  No one will ever be threatened by old man Peters again. He added that they would win the competition.

In a few days as legend has it, the kids won the competition.  Each family was awarded a food basket and a turkey. Old man Peters had been changed from bad to good and none of

Old man Peters was seen several days later, clean shaven, and smiling at everyone he passed.  He personally walked to all seven houses where the kids lived and gave them two gifts each, a hand carved white horse and a snowman.

 This is another story from my personal grandmother's journal.

Gwen Evans

C.2012 June

OMA Grandmother Stories