Santa and Stein

Santa was really good to me this year, that is, with a little help from my kid brother, Pat.

In early December, Pat was rummaging around in the basement of the house we grew up in, when he came across a box of stuff my parents had stored for me when I went into the service. Lo and behold, folded up in the box he found a wrinkled up ski poster. Like a good Santa’s helper he took it to the little elfs who fix all things old for Santa – or so he told me after his third glass of Gluhwein.

Anyway, at our annual family Christmas gathering, Pat handed me this flat, neatly wrapped package and said, "I almost kept this but Santa reminded me it used to be taped on your bedroom door and insisted you needed it back." On my bedroom door? I was totally blank until I unwrapped it by the corner and read Stein – right away I knew my first skiing hero – Stein Eriksen.

No longer blank, memories came back like an avalanche (pun intended). That wonderful Stein at Snowmass at Aspen poster traveled with me for several years, and held center stage at various apartments and ski-house rooms across the country. It finally made it’s way back to my parent's house, where it spent more than a few years in the cellar.

Christmas is about old memories and good times. That poster, all ironed flat, matted, and looking almost like new, sure brought some back. I don’t remember where I got it, but I remember it kept me thinking snow through some long hot summers. Thanks, Santa and Pat – and oh, yeah - thanks, Stein.

Photo of Mike Doyle and Poster © Mike Doyle