It was fairly easy pushing the 2 foot snowball up the base of the railway embankment but the grade quickly got steeper and we were picking up more wet snow every inch of the way. After the first 20 feet the snowball looked more like a snow wheel and was almost 3 feet across and we still had another 20 feet to go till we made it to the tracks. We dropped the snow wheel onto its side and packed it tighter which got it down to 2 and a half feet across then we lurched it up on its edge and continued our trek to the top. Fortunately for us most of the top half of the hill had barely any snow because the sun had melted most of what snow the wind hadn't blown into drifts at the base of the hill. Just before we made it to the top with the snow wheel the heat on the top of my head started to leak blood down my forehead and into my eyes and I slipped. We almost lost our prize right there and then but the wheel canted over and fell on top of John who made an excellent brake to arrest the runaway wheel.
I wiped the blood away with my snow hat and then we got the snow wheel off of John who was starting to make a fuss and was cussing up a storm. Finally we pushed the 3 foot snow wheel to the top of the hill and promptly fell down in the snow at edge of the tracks, panting like Labrador Retrievers. There were still a few flakes in the air, just little ones and they would land on our hot faces as we caught our breath, everything was quiet except for the sound of our own blood pounding in our ears after the hard push up the railway embankment.
WWAAAANN!!, WWAAAANN!!came a Blast of Noise that could have woken the dead and we all leapt to our feet as the CNR Commuter Train barrelled down on us where we lay just feet from the tracks. We all dove for cover down the hill, except for John who just stood there petrified as the bore down on him, the bright light on the engine lit him up like a ghost and in truth all the blood was drained from his face.
JOHN! JOHN!, Dougy and I screamed at the top of our lungs and at the last moment John lurched toward us as the fast commuter train blew by like a man made tornado. We scambled up to John where he lay in the snow as the sound of the commuter train started to fade as quickly as it had come.
John was pretty shaken up and we were worried that maybe he had been grazed by the train so Dougy threw some snow in his face to snap him out of it. Well that worked just swell, John threw a haymaker punch at Dougy and caught him in the shoulder so Dougy swung back and the next thing you know they were both tumbling down the hill, swinging and kicking and cursing at each other. I chased after them to try and break it up but when I caught up with them at the bottom of the hill Dougy threw a punch at John but missed and caught me square in the face. It was a free for all now with fists and boots flying everywhere until we all started to get tired and it degenerated into a wrassling match and finally just three 8 year old boys lying exhausted in the snow.
. None of us was really hurt and after all of the accusations and counter accusations about who had started it had been thrown around for 5 minutes it was agreed that it hadn't really been anybody's fault.
Best friends again, we climbed back up the hill to complete our mission of tossing the snowball (wheel) off of the bridge.
"This is going to be Great!" said Dougy "It's gonna smash into a million pieces!"
"Yeah" said John "This will be SO cool!"
"Let's Smash It!" I chimed in.
There's something about mass destruction that is very appealing to young boys, fortunately most of us grow out of it before we are old enough to handle serious weapons.
Though I suppose that little boy that resides in every man, never really disappears completely.
We pushed and shoved the snow wheel along the edge of the tracks and out onto the bridge, picking up at least a couple of stones along the way, no problem. We rested the wheel up against the heavy metal guard rail and stopped to catch our breath yet again, keeping a sharp lookout for more trains just in case. Below us on Warden Avenue rush hour track was zooming by as people made their way home from work and some of the cars now had their lights on as it was starting to get dark, another 15 minutes and the streetlights would be on and all three of us knew what that meant. We had to dump this thing and get our butts home before those street lights came on or there'd be hell to pay from our parents. With a new sense of urgency, we all hunkered down and heaved on the snow bomb, (somehow it had gotten renamed now that it was going to make the big drop off the bridge)
we managed to move our mound of snow a foot off the ground before it slipped out of mittened hands and feel with a thud back to the bridge deck - it was just too heavy.:angry: All three of us busily set about trimming away some of the rocks and excess snow we'd picked up on the way up to the bridge and we quickly trimmed about 4 inches off of the snow bomb, just enough and not too much because we wanted maximum effect when we watched it crunch into the asphalt road 30 feet below.
We slid the snowbomb back up against the guardrail and lifted it with all our strength, slowly sliding the snowbomb up the pickets of the guardrail. We reached the top rail and held while we checked for cars as the plan was to wait until the light at the intersection of Clonmore Dr. and Warden Ave. stopped the traffic and gave us a clean shot at the center of the two lanes below, the light had just turned green and traffic was moving up towards the bridge.
"Don't push anymore or we'll hit the cars" gasped Dougy through gritted teeth. So we all held and held and held until we just couldn't hold it up anymore, all of our knees were shaking and our fingers were freezing, so that slowly, slowly the snowbomb slid back down the pickets. Dougy slid himself between the snowbomb and the bridge deck, cradling the weight with his knees as we waited for the light to change and catch our breath. John started to complain that he had the furthest to go to make it home before dark and we should come back tomorrow and drop the bomb.
"It's now or never" said Dougy "Look the light is changing!"
We all looked up as the traffic light turned amber and the traffic started to stop.
"This is It!" said Dougy who had been cradling the weight of the snowbomb mostly by himself "Just one big push and we're there!"
"One, Two, THREE!" and we all put our backs into it. The snowbomb slid effortlessly up the rails and wedged up against the toprail while we pushed and shoved for all we were worth. We grunted and shoved but it wouldn't budge until John said he couldn't hold it anymore and Dougy shoved his shoulder into the snowbomb so that the edge that was catching split away and the snowbomb tumbled over the guardrail into the growing darkness. We all peered over the railing to watch the impact onto the road and that's when we saw the Baby Blue Cadillac with the White Vinyl Roof! The snowbomb seemed to hang in slow mid air for a second and it almost seemed like we could claw it back but them time started to speed up and so did the snowbomb. Down, down it fell and landed with a huge metallic thump right onto the hood of that Cadillac. The snowbomb exploded on the hood of the car spraying snow chunks up over the windshield in a wave of white that broke over the roof and trunk of the Baby Blue Caddy! There was the screeching of tires and the hunking of horns as the Caddy shot into the darkness under the bridge as we stood there in shock at our plan gone horribly wrong.
I wiped the blood away with my snow hat and then we got the snow wheel off of John who was starting to make a fuss and was cussing up a storm. Finally we pushed the 3 foot snow wheel to the top of the hill and promptly fell down in the snow at edge of the tracks, panting like Labrador Retrievers. There were still a few flakes in the air, just little ones and they would land on our hot faces as we caught our breath, everything was quiet except for the sound of our own blood pounding in our ears after the hard push up the railway embankment.WWAAAANN!!, WWAAAANN!!came a Blast of Noise that could have woken the dead and we all leapt to our feet as the CNR Commuter Train barrelled down on us where we lay just feet from the tracks. We all dove for cover down the hill, except for John who just stood there petrified as the bore down on him, the bright light on the engine lit him up like a ghost and in truth all the blood was drained from his face.
JOHN! JOHN!, Dougy and I screamed at the top of our lungs and at the last moment John lurched toward us as the fast commuter train blew by like a man made tornado. We scambled up to John where he lay in the snow as the sound of the commuter train started to fade as quickly as it had come.John was pretty shaken up and we were worried that maybe he had been grazed by the train so Dougy threw some snow in his face to snap him out of it. Well that worked just swell, John threw a haymaker punch at Dougy and caught him in the shoulder so Dougy swung back and the next thing you know they were both tumbling down the hill, swinging and kicking and cursing at each other. I chased after them to try and break it up but when I caught up with them at the bottom of the hill Dougy threw a punch at John but missed and caught me square in the face. It was a free for all now with fists and boots flying everywhere until we all started to get tired and it degenerated into a wrassling match and finally just three 8 year old boys lying exhausted in the snow.
. None of us was really hurt and after all of the accusations and counter accusations about who had started it had been thrown around for 5 minutes it was agreed that it hadn't really been anybody's fault. Best friends again, we climbed back up the hill to complete our mission of tossing the snowball (wheel) off of the bridge."This is going to be Great!" said Dougy "It's gonna smash into a million pieces!"
"Yeah" said John "This will be SO cool!"
"Let's Smash It!" I chimed in.
There's something about mass destruction that is very appealing to young boys, fortunately most of us grow out of it before we are old enough to handle serious weapons.
Though I suppose that little boy that resides in every man, never really disappears completely.We pushed and shoved the snow wheel along the edge of the tracks and out onto the bridge, picking up at least a couple of stones along the way, no problem. We rested the wheel up against the heavy metal guard rail and stopped to catch our breath yet again, keeping a sharp lookout for more trains just in case. Below us on Warden Avenue rush hour track was zooming by as people made their way home from work and some of the cars now had their lights on as it was starting to get dark, another 15 minutes and the streetlights would be on and all three of us knew what that meant. We had to dump this thing and get our butts home before those street lights came on or there'd be hell to pay from our parents. With a new sense of urgency, we all hunkered down and heaved on the snow bomb, (somehow it had gotten renamed now that it was going to make the big drop off the bridge)
we managed to move our mound of snow a foot off the ground before it slipped out of mittened hands and feel with a thud back to the bridge deck - it was just too heavy.:angry: All three of us busily set about trimming away some of the rocks and excess snow we'd picked up on the way up to the bridge and we quickly trimmed about 4 inches off of the snow bomb, just enough and not too much because we wanted maximum effect when we watched it crunch into the asphalt road 30 feet below. We slid the snowbomb back up against the guardrail and lifted it with all our strength, slowly sliding the snowbomb up the pickets of the guardrail. We reached the top rail and held while we checked for cars as the plan was to wait until the light at the intersection of Clonmore Dr. and Warden Ave. stopped the traffic and gave us a clean shot at the center of the two lanes below, the light had just turned green and traffic was moving up towards the bridge."Don't push anymore or we'll hit the cars" gasped Dougy through gritted teeth. So we all held and held and held until we just couldn't hold it up anymore, all of our knees were shaking and our fingers were freezing, so that slowly, slowly the snowbomb slid back down the pickets. Dougy slid himself between the snowbomb and the bridge deck, cradling the weight with his knees as we waited for the light to change and catch our breath. John started to complain that he had the furthest to go to make it home before dark and we should come back tomorrow and drop the bomb.
"It's now or never" said Dougy "Look the light is changing!"
We all looked up as the traffic light turned amber and the traffic started to stop.
"This is It!" said Dougy who had been cradling the weight of the snowbomb mostly by himself "Just one big push and we're there!"
"One, Two, THREE!" and we all put our backs into it. The snowbomb slid effortlessly up the rails and wedged up against the toprail while we pushed and shoved for all we were worth. We grunted and shoved but it wouldn't budge until John said he couldn't hold it anymore and Dougy shoved his shoulder into the snowbomb so that the edge that was catching split away and the snowbomb tumbled over the guardrail into the growing darkness. We all peered over the railing to watch the impact onto the road and that's when we saw the Baby Blue Cadillac with the White Vinyl Roof!
The snowbomb seemed to hang in slow mid air for a second and it almost seemed like we could claw it back but them time started to speed up and so did the snowbomb. Down, down it fell and landed with a huge metallic thump right onto the hood of that Cadillac. The snowbomb exploded on the hood of the car spraying snow chunks up over the windshield in a wave of white that broke over the roof and trunk of the Baby Blue Caddy! There was the screeching of tires and the hunking of horns as the Caddy shot into the darkness under the bridge as we stood there in shock at our plan gone horribly wrong.
