Many people have asked if the "snow potion" that Nilufer spoke of is actually true. While the actual recipe is somewhat shrouded in mystery and folklore at this point, and quite complicated if I remember correctly, the answer is yes, yes, yes. It started as a snow dance which then morphed into a questionable concoction which no one is proud of. Nilufer recently asked if I had the actual recipe/ingredients, and in my search for the original manuscript it brought back another funny, wonderful, priceless memory of Bob up at Stowe VT.
It was actually the very first time I met Bob. It was maybe the 2nd or 3rd week of the "Ski Haus" , 1996ish. Bob had recently moved to Boston and our mutual friend Lisa was the only one Bob knew in the area. Lisa invited Bob up to the Ski Haus to introduce him to everyone and enjoy the winter.
Bob of course did not hesitate to blindly walk into our little clique and win us over. I remember the first night he walked in. All he had with him was a small overnight bag, the clothes on his back, and a leather "Top Gun" aviator jacket.
Well, as the night grew old someone asked Bob if he was skiing with us in the morning. Of course Bob had never skied before, but we didn't know this at the time. His answer was filled with eagerness. "I don't know, maybe, I guess, maybe, ok I"ll do it!!"
We asked Bob where his gear was and he replied he didn't have any. We asked "what about a jacket?", and he replied "I have my leather coat."
"What!!! you can't ski in a leather jacket!"
"You came to Vermont in January with no coat?!!??"
We gave Bob so much crap about that for years on end. We never let him forget that, but that is just where the story begins, the legend of the Hot Music jacket was born.
That night we scrambled to get Bob at least the minimum gear he needed to survive a winter day in Vermont. We were failing miserably when someone opened a coat closet just off the kitchen. I can remember it like it was yesterday. There it was. The only thing in the closet. The Hot Music jacket was just perfect. Now, close your eyes and imagine the worst, 1980's, neon, Miami Vice looking ski jacket you can come up with. Well, you would be wrong. It was worse, way worse, The entire inside of the coat had "Hot Music" stitched all through it. Not to mention it was a women's coat. A very petite women's coat that someone had left there from the year before, no doubt on purpose. I can't even type this without laughing my butt off. This would be Bob's crucible. If he could handle this, he would be one of us.
Bob not only handled it, he wore it proudly. The sleeves were too short and he could barely zip it up. It was beautiful. I remember a large group of us were skiing a barely known, kinda out of bounds trail, called "The River Bed". In the summer it is actually a river that freezes over in the winter and creates a quite difficult run. This might have been Bob's 3rd day skiing.......maybe.......if that. Bob had no business being on that trail, but we all know how Bob handled any challenge. We all got to the bottom and were standing there in a small circle when we noticed Bob was missing. Oops, maybe we shouldn't have brought him in here, but no one ever accused us of being the brightest bunch. That's when we saw him. Somehow he had made it way off to skiers right and was crashing through the tress completely out of control. Arms waving above his head. His weight leaning too far to the left, and then back to the right. The glorious Hot Music coat unzipped and blowing in the wind. He was coming at us fast, and we all started to nervously back up. Just then, at the very last second, he face planted and bit it right at our feet. "Bob are you ok?", we all asked, 97% laughing and 3% really kinda concerned. Bob looked up with the biggest grin you can imagine. "We have to do that again!", he cried.
"Of course we'll do it again", "and you can take that foolish jacket off now, you earned it."
"oh, and remember, there are NO friends on a powder day"
P.S. and yes, the snow potion works. Bob made it snow 3 straight weeks.
I wonder what ever happened to that Hot Music jacket.