To quote from the Movie : "Galaxy Quest"- "It was the great snowball war of 1959."
First, some background. Where I lived we built Snow Forts for our legendary hours long conflicts. The forts came in three types:
Mounds:
Those were the easiest and quickest to build. Five kids with huge metal snow shovels, and unlimited kid energy, could pack enough snow high enough to hide behind (while standing) in less time than it takes for your head to get cold enough to put your hat back on.
They also had a strategic secret...because they were sloped on the sides facing the "enemy", their snowballs often didn't break, but got stuck in the snow. So you could reuse their ammo. That helped in the few breaks to reload we had. And let the battle continue almost unabated.
Next up was:
Walled Fort.
These were made with snow blocks about the size of cinder blocks. and you laid them like a bricklayer would. And you made them double thick. You had "gun ports" where the wall was open from mid chest to the top of your head. So when you stood up, you could fling your arm with a follow through that would have made any Major League Pitcher proud. On the sides of the gun port, the walls towered five feet tall, and two feet think. Charging one of those in the open...suicide. You got pelted with high velocity snowballs screaming at you with a velocity enough to shatter your glasses. And, God Forbid, one of the bigger kids chucked the Softball Sized "Cannon Ball" snowballs...it left bruises...and many a Mom storming down later to find out just what "idiot" froze a snowball and hit her son with ice!
Last but not least. And maybe a foreshadowing of my future Military Career:
The Gun Pit.
I found a picture of one of those, and posted it for this story. As you can see, it looks just like an 81 mm Mortar gun pit. A bit bigger, and you could put a whole 4.2 inch in there. Notice they are not wearing hats in that picture.
Why? It is freezing outside.
Because making those forts, but especially the "Gun Pit" with its ammo lockers, foot stools, and seats made of snow, was work. Hard, sweaty, physical, work. Lots of shaving, packing, pounding, and occasionally some water to freeze on the outer walls as armor. So the hats came back on when you cooled down, and you zippered your Jackets back up too.

Now that you have the Forts down, you had to make ammo. Lots and lots of Ammo. You used your little brothers and sisters to make piles of snow. The next oldest girls and boys would then make snow balls. Then the really big kids would press them down from the size of a softball to the size of a little league baseball. And those things were solid.
If you had a well trained group, you could make fifty or more, almost all the same size...in ten minutes. Along with a couple of cannon balls. Those behemoths were the size of bowling balls. You couldn't throw them far, but if you hit someone with one, it would both knock them down AND knock the breath out of them. And some of the kids who threw them, took it personal, and forgot we were having fun. So those things flew at you.
And, every once in a while, there was a cheater snowball. Covered in ice. Or with a rock or gravel inside. These were considered violations of the Geneva Convention. If you got hit with one, and you found out who made it, and threw it. Fat lips, bloody noses, and black eyes followed a feverish round of punches. Mittens make lousy boxing gloves. And in some very rare cases, where a kid truly did get hit, well, no more snowball fights for the guy that threw that "dirty ammo". It might two maybe three days for him to be forgiven enough to rejoin the group. And be allowed in the fort.
Not everyone was allowed in the Forts either. Girls for example. Or little brothers. Little brothers helped build, and gather snow for snowballs. But they could throw worth a darn, and certainly not over the wall.
And then you had to watch out for them, for if they caught a snowball in the face, well, the tears, crying and screaming had to be cared for. Usually you took them to a Sister as the Nurse Medic, and carried on. But sometimes, well, you had to walk them home. Sigh.
Oh, and these forts got massive. The snow didn't melt for two or three months. The biggest Fort I ever saw - or built, was up at Mills Middle School back woods. By then time it melted in the Spring thaw, that sucker had seven rooms, gun pits at either end....and believe it or not, a roof!
Nick Pavalack's Father was both a Machinist and a Carpenter...so he gave us some good tips ...and we learned about load bearing walls, and sloped roofs to distribute the weight of the snow. And the doggone thing had doorways!
We used beach towels and hung them from the door jambs by just pounding them into the snow with a clothes pin as a nail.
We even named them.
Ours was: "Fort Mc Henry."
And at the end of the day.. worn, weary, wounded, wet and weak, we headed home where Mom's told us to: "Take off your galoshes, get out of those wet clothes, and what have you been up too?"
We followed all the orders chirped at us. Because we knew what she was going to say next:
"Once you are in dry clothes...come down to the Kitchen. I will have some hot chocolate and marshmallow for you. And yes, Roddy, Mike, and Billy...you can stay and have some too."
And smiling, we put our wet clothes on the line in the laundry room.
Tomorrow, we improve the Fort.