{"id":300,"date":"2007-11-24T10:13:31","date_gmt":"2007-11-24T14:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/2007\/11\/24\/snowy-night-uncle-saul-hannibal\/"},"modified":"2009-03-13T10:23:24","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T14:23:24","slug":"snowy-night-uncle-saul-hannibal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=300","title":{"rendered":"Snowy Night, Uncle Saul & Hannibal"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I think back to when I was a kid, I can no longer separate my love for snow, from my love of no school <\/em>(because of snow).\u00a0 Come\u00a0the winter, I found religion.<\/em>\u00a0 I prayed for snow.\u00a0 At night my nose would be pressed to\u00a0a front window of our house on Alston Avenue… looking at the street light just to our left… looking for the first glimpse of snow, hoping to see snow falling in the cone of projected light.\u00a0 I knew that “fat” flakes were useless… too much snow would accumulate on tree branches, and not enough on the street — where it counted!\u00a0 I wanted small tiny flakes, driving down in an unearthly manner.\u00a0 I wanted no school.<\/em> <\/p>\n

But there was more…<\/p>\n

Snow and its thick blanket magnified the essence of the home<\/em> for me.\u00a0 <\/em>A place of warmth, a place of safety,\u00a0a place of\u00a0family.\u00a0 A blizzard could be raging, wind beating against the panes and I couldn’t have been happier.\u00a0 The <\/em>tomato soup\u00a0with buttered saltine crackers was better, <\/em>the crackling log fire was better<\/em>, the hot chocolate was better, <\/em>my socks felt better… <\/em>and the stories were better.<\/em><\/p>\n

I may have prayed<\/em> for snow on Alston Avenue.\u00a0 But I loved <\/em>the snow in Woodbury.\u00a0 New Haven snow was OK,\u00a0but Woodbury\u00a0snow was better<\/em>… the homes were further apart… larger stretches of uninterrupted snow fields.\u00a0 And more to the point, when it rained in New Haven, Woodbury, up in soft hills of Litchfield County, got snow.\u00a0 When we traveled up to Woodbury for a weekend visit to my Aunt Meggie and Uncle Saul, it felt like we were going to Vermont… and on the drive north I found myself thinking, “too bad I didn’t go to school in Woodbury.”<\/p>\n

Meggie and Saul\u00a0had this marvelous house on Carthage Rd.\u00a0 I think that it\u00a0dated back to the 1700s.\u00a0 Over the years the house had been added to by a score of previous occupants… room by room, level by level.\u00a0 It was a house of small spaces.\u00a0 Spaces that could best be appreciated on a cold winter’s night.<\/p>\n

The house itself was set back a good fifty yards from the road, the drive snaked its way thru a combination of fir trees to one side and a stand of white birches to the other.\u00a0 Sugar maples\u00a0protected the den side <\/em>of the house… and in the\u00a0darkness the variety of sound created by the wind running thru those bare limbs on a winter’s evening was hypnotic.\u00a0 Add a driving snow, as there was one January Saturday night, and the stage was set for my Uncle Saul.<\/p>\n

I loved the stories read to me on Alston Avenue.\u00a0 Bedtime stories in Woodbury were different<\/em>.\u00a0 I was accustomed to being read to in my room.\u00a0 But when we visited Woodbury, story time was in the downstairs den.\u00a0 My Mom & Dad and Aunt Meggie would linger at the dinning table over coffee and dessert, content to talk the night away.\u00a0 Saul would wait for me to join him in the den after I got into my pajamas and got cleaned up for bed.\u00a0 He was in charge <\/em>of story time… and a story never came from a book.<\/p>\n

The den in Woodbury was packed with stuff.\u00a0 <\/em>Artwork, figurines, bookshelves crammed with books and bric brac<\/em>, a Sharp’s buffalo rifle (my personal favorite) hung on the\u00a0wall above the couch… and a huge standing globe occupied the furthest corner of the room.\u00a0 When I entered the room on that\u00a0January night, Saul slowly turned the globe and pivoted its orientation ’til he found his desired spot.\u00a0 I was used to this.\u00a0 Saul treated “den stuff” as props <\/em>for his bedtime stories.\u00a0 I always tried guessing which curiosity <\/em>would be used in his tale.<\/p>\n

“Jimmy… this is the Mediterranean Sea and for hundreds of years the most important and powerful civilizations of the Western World rimmed its shores.\u00a0 One of the greatest Empires the World has ever seen was\u00a0centered here… Rome.”<\/p>\n

I could hear the wind driving small flakes against the den window.\u00a0 But I couldn’t take my eyes off the globe…<\/p>\n

“My story tonight is about a brave and courageous General who 2200 years ago took on the glorious Roman Army and won<\/u><\/em>!\u00a0 It was like the Dodgers beating the Yankees in 1955.\u00a0 The name of the great general was Hannibal… and he came from here… a place called Carthage, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

“At the time of this story, Hannibal had his Army here… in New Carthage which is called Spain today.\u00a0 And to conquer Rome he had to get here… Italy.\u00a0 He had to go thru this part of France… nice beaches… and here, the Alps… huge mountains covered in snow.\u00a0 And this was all before<\/em> he reached Italy.\u00a0 And he didn’t have planes, trains or buses to help him get from here to there.\u00a0 He had to walk all the way… from here to there<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

To emphasize this, Uncle Saul trudged around the den, heaving and sighing and looking belaboured with each step.\u00a0 Corny?\u00a0 Sure… but not to a little kid who delighted in the “theatre”.<\/p>\n

“No easy way to get to Italy… But Hannibal was set on beating the Romans… AND<\/strong> <\/strong>he had a secret weapon<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Secret weapon<\/em>?!\u00a0 What kid doesn’t want to hear about secret weapons?<\/p>\n

“Hannibal had elephants!”<\/p>\n

This didn’t seem like a big deal to me.\u00a0 Elephants?\u00a0 Go to the Bronx Zoo, watch a Tarzan movie, there were elephants all over the place.<\/p>\n

“Jimmy, back then no one had seen elephants before.\u00a0 They thought they were monsters!\u00a0 Dinosaurs!\u00a0 Little kids would go running home, ‘Mommy, Mommy! There’s a triceratops walking down the street!'”<\/p>\n

Well… that struck home.\u00a0 What kid wouldn’t trade every dessert for a lifetime to see a triceratops walking down the street!<\/p>\n

“Hannibal’s army\u00a0had archers, spear guys… and elephant guys<\/em>!\u00a0 Sorta like artillery units, infantry units and armored <\/em>units!\u00a0 They had to cross France.\u00a0 And\u00a0this was before they invented wine!\u00a0 And over here {and he pointed to the Rhone River} he had to fool the Romans.\u00a0 You see… the Romans were wise to Hannibal and they sent one of their Armies to beat him even before<\/em> he got to Italy.\u00a0 The Romans thought they were smart.\u00a0 Hannibal was smarter<\/em>!\u00a0 He went up River and crossed here… and the Romans had no one to fight except the fleas!”<\/p>\n

The wind spit into the window.<\/p>\n

“These Roman guys hadn’t even seen these elephants yet… so they were clueless.\u00a0 They thought they were just dealing with archers, spear guys and cooks.\u00a0 It’s like the Yankees not knowing about Campy, Jackie, Gil & the Duke!\u00a0 Hannibal had elephants.\u00a0 Not zoo<\/em> elephants… but war elephants!<\/strong>“<\/p>\n

War elephants!\u00a0 My head spun.<\/p>\n

“These elephants were big, mean and armored<\/em>!”<\/p>\n

Uncle Saul reached for a box on the floor near the globe… he opened it and retrieved a Pickelhaube… <\/em>the distinctive helmet with a spike that the Prussian military favored in the 19th Century.\u00a0 He put it on, secured it in place, and dropped to all fours and continued his story and I retreated to the security of the blue club chair.<\/p>\n

“The war\u00a0elephants were like Sherman Tanks!\u00a0 Thick body armor all over… and it took a team to operate an elephant — just like a tank.\u00a0 First, there was the elephantier<\/em>.\u00a0 He commanded the team… he directed the elephant from a padded seat just behind the elephant’s head.\u00a0 There was a protected platform on top of the elephant where two archers were stationed.\u00a0 They would shoot arrows and hurl things…”<\/p>\n

“What do you mean hurl <\/em>Uncle Saul?”<\/p>\n

“When they ran out of arrows, they had a supply of good sized rocks that they would hurl, throw<\/em>, at the enemy.\u00a0 And when they ran out of rocks they would hurl insults… they would shout down to the enemy, ‘Hey!\u00a0 Your mother has a fat bee-hind!’\u00a0 That would drive the Romans nuts!”<\/p>\n

“Oh…”<\/p>\n

“And completing the elephant team was the peanutier… <\/em>he’s the guy who schlepped<\/em> sacks of roasted peanuts to feed the elephant… and finally the sanitary engineer… <\/em>he’s the guy who cleaned up after the elephant did a number two.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Uncle Saul proceeded to crawl around the room… making grumbling and trumpeting sounds… doing his best to play the part of an elephant… a war elephant<\/em>!<\/p>\n

I tried not to laugh; but I think I let a small giggle escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK. \u00a0Hannibal dodges a\u00a0‘bullet’ in the lower Rhone.\u00a0 He still has to cross the Alps.\u00a0 He has his Army and 37 elephants.\u00a0 And these elephants don\u2019t like the snow, and it\u2019s snowing a ton in those mountains!\u00a0 And it’s freezing cold like you can’t believe.\u00a0 Even the soldiers are angry… they didn’t have underwear in those days!\u201d<\/p>\n

On cue, the wind gust picked up its intensity outside the den window.\u00a0 Uncle Saul crawled over to the couch, shivering he trumpeted and grumbled, and took Aunt Meggie\u2019s afghan and wrapped it around his shoulders, and continued in his travels\u00a0crawling around the coffee table with its shaky leg, and headed to the floor lamp and lifted his leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at this!\u00a0 It\u2019s so cold here in the Alps, I can\u2019t pee!\u201d\u00a0 And he let out a massive trumpet.\u00a0 \u201cIt was so cold that their number two<\/em> froze hard as rocks and the sanitary engineers had to collect them to use, if need be, against the Romans.\u00a0 The Engineers weren’t too happy about harvesting frozen number two.\u00a0 Most of the elephants died in the Alps crossing.\u00a0 But enough made it to Italy\u2019s Po River Plain at Ticinus where Hannibal\u2019s Army met the Roman Army led by the Consul Publius Cornelius Scipio.\u00a0 The Romans were stunned.\u00a0 Some of their guys mumbled, \u2018holy crow\u2026 I think those are triceratops!\u2019\u00a0 And before they knew it, the Romans felt the sting of arrows, then rocks\u2026 and then insults<\/em>, \u2018Your Mother uses bottled sauce!\u2019\u00a0 And you can\u2019t say anything worse to a Roman!\u00a0 It was even worse then getting hit with a frozen turd!\u00a0 Then Hannibal beat them at Trebia, at Lake Trasimene, and then his greatest victory of all at Cannae. \u00a0Hannibal and his elephants couldn\u2019t be beaten!\u201d<\/p>\n

And Uncle Saul trumpeted and grunted, charged around the room\u2026 put his head down with his spiked helmet and\u00a0crawled full speed\u00a0into the coffee table, its weak leg gave way, he let out a war whoop, crawled around the room, another trumpet, and he lowered his head once more to finish off the table, he whacked into it, then he reared up on his knees and brought his fists down on the table to utterly crush it.<\/p>\n

My eyes bugged out! \u00a0I sat in the safety of the blue club chair.\u00a0 What would the other adults think? After Uncle Saul stopped his trumpeting and growling, all I could hear was the muffled sound of laughter coming from the dinning room.\u00a0 I was exhausted, I felt like I had been an elephantier<\/em>\u00a0at Cannae.<\/em>\u00a0I told Uncle Saul that this was the best story ever, I was happy that Hannibal had won… I certainly didn\u2019t know what Saul would say to Meggie about destroying the coffee table\u2026 I went to the guest bedroom with visions of elephants tramping thru a blizzard and stomping thru Roman villages.<\/p>\n

I never got a chance to ask Uncle Saul how he chose his topics for story time.\u00a0 Sadly, he passed away well before I had the smarts <\/em>to ask about his creativity.\u00a0 Luckily, Aunt Meggie had remained a score plus more in years\u2026 to a day when I did have time and opportunity to ask the fun questions and fill in some of the blanks.<\/p>\n

On a visit to her home in Chatham I asked, \u201cAunt Meggie, the time that Uncle Saul told me that story at your place up in Woodbury\u2026 how did he cover clobbering your coffee table?\u00a0 I mean… what story did he make up\u00a0for you<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat table?\u201d\u00a0 And Meggie just laughed, and laughed\u2026 and shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cThat table?\u00a0 I had been asking Saul to throw that rickety table out for years!\u00a0 If\u00a0you sneezed it would collapse!\u00a0 He just found a unique way to do it\u2026 his way<\/em>.\u00a0 When we heard that tumult coming from the den, we suspected what was going on.\u00a0 We tried to keep our laughter in\u2026 we didn\u2019t want to upstage Saul\u2019s performance.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s my Uncle Saul.\u00a0 He made stories come alive.\u00a0 He probably bought that old farm house on Carthage Rd. just\u00a0to have a reason to tell a story about Hannibal and his elephants. He just had to wait a few years for the weather conditions, an appropriate audience\u00a0and a reason to annihilate a piece of furniture to come together.\u00a0 But Saul knew that day would come\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I think back to when I was a kid, I can no longer separate my love for snow, from my love of no school (because of snow).\u00a0 Come\u00a0the winter, I found religion.\u00a0 I prayed for snow.\u00a0 At night my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meggie-saul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}