Giant Dutch Snowball of doom!Follow

Those dutch kids sure know how to have a good time. Considering that the driver felt it hit INSIDE A TRAIN how big was this freakish snowball anyways?

/em ponders mighty legions of dutch children creating snowballs the size of small moons...

Oddly Enough - Reuters

Giant Snowball Stops Train in Its Tracks
Wed Jan 28,10:40 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A giant snowball stopped Dutch trains in their tracks Wednesday on a key route, and young pranksters thrilled by a rare snowfall were the prime suspects.

"The engine driver felt a smack and stopped the train. He walked back and reported a large snowball had rolled down the slope onto the rails," a spokesman for rail network operator ProRail said.

"We suspect it was pushed down the slope by some youths."

Traffic on the Apeldoorn-Amersfoort route that also leads to Berlin was temporarily suspended. Weather experts say the first heavy snowfall for years could cause major traffic disruption.

/mourns snow people

Damn Dutch.

Ah - snow memories...

Not living that close to the tracks as a kid, we enjoyed our version of what we called The Winter Olympics, i.e. snowballs and cars.

One of our favorite activities was to lob snowballs from an elevated position between two evergreen trees overlooking an intersection in a ritzy area of Cleveland (Shaker Heights). Extra points were scored for hitting the windshield of a moving car (causing the snowball to "explode" in a most satisfactory manner). Extra points were also scored if the car was either a VW bug or a Cadillac (although we never kept track of the points). Lastly, if we could get the driver to come out of the car and chase us - we won!

Another favorite activity (if we didn't want to trek over to Shaker Hts) was to stand on sidewalk of the main street, nonchalant-like, and throw the snowball hard at a passing car's hubcap. It made a REAL NICE loud twang sound, and if you hit it just right, the hubcap would bounce off! We frequently got chased on these - had a great escape route through the backyards of our neighborhood.

Ah, yes - looking out the window, looks like a beautiful sunny day in Santa Barbara today...