An earlier cold and snowy winter

To the editor:
    A colder, snowier winter than usual here reminds me of Maine winters years ago. Two trophies in my livingroom came to me during such winters, and thanks to the trophies, I got to see Caribou twice. Our family had often gone to visit Fort Fairfield to visit Ina’s brother, Edgar Hand, and his family, and basketball games and friends took me to Presque Isle, but Caribou remained unknown.
    A friend of my parents drove us up — Ina, my brother Leonard, and me — in very cold weather. The friend handed lap robes to us kids as we climbed into the back seat, and placed hot bricks covered with cloth under our feet. “You can’t tell the car heater’s on back here,” she explained. The heated bricks, which struck us funny at first, kept us cozy.
    A huge ice sculpture in the middle of town is my main memory of Caribou, other than the cold. Fortunately, my trophies required little exercise — merely walking into the high school and up onto a stage, where I then took my turn at spelling words.
    On each trophy a 10-inch brass winged victory statuette holds high a torch atop a 10-inch wood base. Engraved on a brass plaque is the following in short lines: Aroostook County/High Schools/1948/Spelling Champion/Byrna Mae Porter/Houlton/Awarded at /Caribou Winter Carnival/By the Newspapers of Aroostook County. The second trophy is identical, except for 1949 and Maine added after Houlton.
    A 5×7 certificate, placed by Ina in a frame made by Porter in the studio from molding he made in his workshop at Nickerson Lake, reads: Aroostook County Spelling Bees Town School Countywide Championships held as a Feature of the Tenth Annual Caribou Winter Carnival: Certificate of Award to Byrna Mae Porter, Winner of the 1948 Championship for Houlton High School. Aroostook Spelling Bees Sponsored by the Aroostook (Caribou) Republican, Fort Fairfield Review, Houlton Pioneer Times, Mars Hill View, Presque Isle Star-Herald.
    Winning by spelling accommodate resulted in my proofreading the word ever after. Leonard went down on recommend, which he spelled correctly ever after. When he won his trophy in 1952, the  design had changed, and a plaque, added at the bottom, listed the sponsoring newspapers, with only the Mars Hill View missing. My sister-in-law described the trophy to me; it sits in the den in Pullman, Wash., in the same spot it held when Leonard was alive.
    Cold and snow can bring very warm memories.
Byrna Porter Weir
Rochester, N.Y.