Little Hooded Men

 Little Hooded Man

Recently, we had two snows. The first was light and powdery. The second was a heavy, easily compressed snow. The wet snow caused our Pastor to express his creative spirit by building a snow man. Sunday morning, near the front door of the Mount Zion Community Church I saw a new greeter. Its silly smiling face welcomed our congregation. The frosty person wore a vest, a hat, and gloves at the ends of its stick arms. Besides the chill of the snow, a pair of sunglasses perched on its face made the snowman look really “cool.” It reminded me of another snowman that was built on the church property, but it was much smaller. It was a snowman that I built on the hood of another church member's car hood.
His automobile was an older model that still had a raised hood ornament. The shining metal ornament stood about four inches tall above the plane of the car hood. The decoration became the firm anchor for the snow person that I fashioned. It was only two snowballs high and had two sticks protruding from its thicker body as arms. The car’s dark burgundy colored hood made the little white snow buddy even more eye-catching.
When my friend and his wife came out of church, he began to chuckle and she laughed. Without actually addressing their new passenger, they climbed into their car and drove off heading to their nearby home.
Returning to church for the Sunday evening services, the snowman was still firmly ensconced on its throne at the front of their car. Talking to my friend after the service, I asked him why he hadn’t knocked it off. He replied in his usual laid back manner, “I thought it would fall off while I was driving.”
I can’t remember how that little snow buddy disappeared or when it finally fell off. I’m not sure whether it was while he was driving or whether the weather or the warmth from the motor under the hood caused him to melt, lose his grip, and slide from his once secure perch.