Gigantic Famous Snow People

What is the saying? "When life hands you lemons-make lemonade!". How true. The northeast has received tons of snow this year. I am originally from Maine and a majority of my family still lives there. My sister sent me the pictures of these gigantic snow people, and my mother sent the stats (in italics).

I know I have said this before but it is worth mentioning again, when I joined the Army, people would ask where I am from, I would always reply, "Maine." Many people would then ask, "Is that a state?" and "Where is it located?"

Maine is indeed a state. A very beautiful state. Maine and Tennessee have some similarities, including: famous folks, beautiful land and scenery, tourists, and a wide range of differing people. Maine and Tennessee also have some differences, including: the Home of Country Music, and lobsters. One state has it, the other doesn't.Enough on the states....on to famous snow people with tons of snow!

"The world's tallest snowman is no man. The "snowwoman" towers over the village of Bethel, Maine. It is 122 feet tall. Bethel is a ski town of about 2400 residents and at the dedication of Olympia, Mark Bancroft, who donated the 150 foot crane to build it with, said when the going gets tough in the winter with lotsa snow and fuel costs, we in Bethel get tough and build a snowman! The crowd gave an applause that was muffled due to their gloves and mittens on their hands.

In 1999 Bethel build the then tallest snowman, named Angus after our then Independent Governor, Angus King who lives in Brunswick, Maine. Angus was certified as the worlds tallest snowman by the Guinness Book of Records. It is not known if Olympia will get the new record or not since it is not a snowman but snowwoman, and there are not two categories. Residents are petitioning for Guinness to add a category for snowwoman. Since then Bethel has been waiting for someone to break the record. No one did in 9 years, so Bethel figured they would break their own record. There was plenty of snow for the project this year, unlike the year Angus was built and had to be started with man made snow. Parts of Maine have had over 100 inches of snow.

Olympia features eyelashes made from discarded skis (donated by Sunday River Ski Resort), bright red lips made from giant painted car tires, eyes made from giant wreaths, 27 foot tall evergreen trees for arms, an 8 foot carrot nose painted by the school children, a giant red hat, a 100 foot-long scarf, blond tresses made from rope, a 6 foot long snowflake pendant.

Jim Sysko, a civil engineer oversaw the design and construction the the making of Olympia and said it took more than a month to build, dozens of volunteers and TONS of snow. It was built with a series of concentric circles and the 150 foot crane would dump snow into frames and volunteers would climb in for long hours of shoveling and packing the snow.

At the dedication on last Friday volunteer David Lynch said the best part was that everyone in town pitched in on it and made it happen. He also said it got pretty hairy at the top and he only went to 80 feet.

Iris Roberts from Jefferson City, MO said it is the whimsy of it all, and that makes it so great. She watched the dedication with her husband.

Darlene Ginsberg directed traffic with one hand while a cup of hot coffee was in her other hand and said that people love that we did something good with all this snow.

After the dedication Julia Reuter led the crowd in singing "Winter Wonderland".

Alex Kaufman from Sunday River credited Olympia for bringing the snowiest winter in 12 years and then took a jab at Angus by saying "Angus didn't bring squat for snow and in this case it took a woman to get the job done!"

Olympia could not attend the dedication because of her duties in Washington but a statement was read to the crowd from Olympia which in part was "I've joked that it's just my luck I'd have a world record-breaking monument named after me and it will be gone by summer".

To get an idea of the scale of Olympia, she is about 30 feet shorter than the Statue if Liberty (without the base)."

The first picture is of Angus, the second is this year's entry of the world's largest snowwoman, Olympia (after Olympia Snowe of Maine).

Tennessee also had a bit of its own snow this year. Wonders of wonders! Nina sent me the last two pictures. The birdhouses and trees behind the birdhouses look alot like Maine this year. Do you suppose the hawk that landed in her yard would like to use one of the birdhouses for shelter right about now?

in the garden....