Imported Blizzard : Street Scene Is Free-for-All of Snowballs

The blizzard that had been forecast to hit San Fernando on Saturday took longer to blow into town than expected. It developed an oil leak in Santa Fe Springs.

“A compressor went out in our second truck and we lost all our oil on the freeway,” Mike Frank said. His Anaheim ice company had been hired for $800 to cover a San Fernando intersection with snow as a Christmas kickoff for northeast San Fernando Valley retailers.

In the back of the dripping, disabled truck was 11 1/2 tons of ice that was to have been ground into tiny slivers and then blown onto the pavement with a huge fan.

A third ice-filled truck was ordered. Frank, meanwhile, continued on with the first truck and its 12-ton ice cargo. By the time he reached the intersection of San Fernando Road and Maclay Avenue, children wearing gloves and grins were lined up for action.

Snowballs Flying

Frank spread a few inches of snow on the blocked-off intersection before his supply ran out and about 300 children jumped in. Snowballs were soon flying in every direction.

“No! No! We are trying to build a snow mountain. We need your cooperation,” Jerry Sarmiento shouted. His newly formed San Fernando Spanish Chamber of Commerce was co-sponsoring, with Anheuser-Busch and San Fernando Mall merchants, what he was hoping would be a “winter wonderland.”

Sarmiento ordered the children to leave the snow and stand at the edge of the street. He watched anxiously for the second ice truck. When he learned that it was about two hours away, he relented.

“We are going to let you play in the snow,” Sarmiento announced from a nearby platform. “But don’t throw the snowballs too far away. Don’t throw the snowballs over the stage.”

He was rewarded with an icy salute. “You, kid, stop it!” Sarmiento shouted at the thrower.

At the edge of the snow patch, 16-year-old Victor De Leon stood in a new Santa Claus suit, posing for $3 Polaroid photos. He said he volunteered in a student government class to be Santa as a fund-raiser for Sylmar High School, where he is an 11th-grader.

“I forgot to bring a pillow,” said Victor, a skinny 140-pounder. He dashed out of the intersection when a well-aimed snowball scored a bull’s-eye on his unpadded stomach. “I should have had a pillow.”

Nearby, 5-year-old David De A’Morelli of Pacoima took his first step into snow as his aunt, Joan Lancaster, watched.

“It’s like ice. I like it,” David said. He reconsidered when a snowball hit him in the face, however. “I don’t like that,” David said.

After about two hours, much of the Valley’s first snowfall of the season had either melted or been tossed away. Then--just in time--the iceman cometh.

Replacement Truck

Another ice truck was quickly unloaded and its frozen blocks fed into the grinder. Frank used a fat hose to spray the intersection with jets of fresh snow.

A children’s choir was assembling on Sarmiento’s stage to sing “Jingle Bells” when Frank’s hose popped loose from the grinder’s blower. That sent a jet of snow sailing unchecked across the intersection. It pelted the platform and the choir and Sarmiento ducked.

Winter was finally in the air.