A man keeps a snowball in his parents’ freezer since 1987 and shows its result: “An old friend”.

Dan Bell, a well-known American director, recently shared a post on Instagram and TikTok that sparked great interest among his followers. Inside a cup found deep in his parents’ freezer, he had stored a snowball from a November 1987 snowstorm that his mother had preserved all these years.

In an interview with People magazine, Bell explained that he had saved the snowball after a memorable Veterans Day snowstorm in 1987 that caused a stir in the Baltimore area. “The idea came to me when I was 10 years old. I remember it wasn’t even winter yet, it was still fall, and this unexpected storm hit, leaving us all stranded at elementary school. The snow was supposed to turn into rain, but it never did,” he recalled.

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“It just kept snowing. I live in the Baltimore area, so it’s rare for a storm like that to hit early in the season. It created a lot of buzz, which is probably why I decided to save the snow.”

Bell chose a unique container for the snowball: a 25-cent toy vending machine capsule from Kmart. “There was a local Kmart with prize vending machines at the entrance. We would always put in our coins and get small plastic containers with prizes. I placed the snow inside one of those plastic capsules and stored it in my parents’ freezer, where it remained for decades,” he shared.

The Forgotten Snowball

For many years, Bell forgot about the treasure hidden in his parents’ freezer. However, recently, he asked his mother if they still had it. When she said no, he checked the freezer, and there it was. “I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ It felt like I was reconnecting with an old friend,” Bell said.

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“The mall in my neighborhood opened that same year. It’s strange because that mall no longer exists. Now, the little snowball has just a tiny bit of ice left inside. Over 37 years, it has slowly evaporated,” Bell explained.

That’s when he decided to share his rediscovered treasure in a video on social media, where nostalgic audiences quickly embraced it. “I didn’t pay much attention to the post at first, but then a viewer sent me a video that had been reposted on YouTube, it had 20 or 30 million views. Then, I saw it had gone viral on TikTok and Instagram as well.”

Bell noted that some users believed he had made up the story. “I understand why people might not believe it, I see things online all the time that I don’t believe, but I can assure everyone this is real,” he stated. Pointing to his mother as an example of honesty, he added: “If I went to my mom and said, ‘Mom, let’s pretend I collected this snow on a random day 37 years ago. Will you play along?’ There’s no way she would. She is incredibly honest.”