Snowfolk

During the winter festival (23 December – 2 February), three unique **snowfolk** can be purchased at Ms. Carouse's store for 40 snow crystals each for the players who are on their in-game day 31 or later.

Snowfolk are placed on the island similar to regular decorations. However, the player can interact with them to receive a snow crystal or an essence and listen to their stories. Each snowfolk can only share one memory per day.

## Snowfolk artist

**Snowfolk:** People always said I had a lot of potential. Like maybe I could have really done something... *creative*. A work of art for the ages.
But somehow, it just never came together for me. I could never seem to sit down and complete anything.
I did some traveling. I had a family with two wonderful daughters. And in the end I just... ran out of time.
**Snowfolk:** A very early memory. A girl was playing with a red truck.
I took it from her.
Her face crumpled and she began to cry.
**Snowfolk:** My father always woke up incredibly early, around 4:30, and drove to the gas station to get his morning coffee.
Sometimes I'd go with him.
The stale smell of his drink filled the car.
**Snowfolk:** Our teacher made me walk up to the front of the class to show my chameleon sculpture.
Everyone was staring at me.
I turned to the side, and some of the kids giggled.
**Snowfolk:** We were in a restaurant. At another table, an old man slumped in his chair.
After a while, the ambulance came.
My mom told me not to stare.
**Snowfolk:** With all the pillows, toys, and camping gear, my brother and I barely fit in the backseat of the car.
A snug, warm, happy ship on the road.
**Snowfolk:** In the autumn my grandmother took me on a long stroll through the woods so she could buy mushroom compost from a neighbor.
The dogwood trees were a fiery scarlet.
**Snowfolk:** I was proud to be showing our little film on the big screen to the whole school.
But when it finished and the auditorium went dark, I hardly expected such a loud, delirious roar!
**Snowfolk:** We were the only two people to arrive to class early.
She pointed at a blue notebook I had and said, 'I like your notebook!'
That was the start of our friendship.
**Snowfolk:** We had walked out on some movie and ended up at the beach, just walking and talking.
A thick fog had settled. We could barely see each other, but our voices were clear and close.
**Snowfolk:** She could barely hold onto the heavy fishbowl, and it was clear the treadmill was running too fast.
The pure panic on her face!
It was maybe the hardest the three of us had ever laughed.
**Snowfolk:** It was an incredibly brisk morning.
I had my good heavy jacket, my hot coffee, and my love sitting right next to me.
At that moment, I didn't need anything more.
**Snowfolk:** It was a sleeper train.
I woke up in the middle of the night from the cold--the AC was cranked high--and was pacing between the cars to warm myself up.
That's when I saw the most beautiful moonlit landscape rolling by... all trees and rice paddies and dark little houses.
**Snowfolk:** It was so dark that I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or closed.
There was a terrible roaring outside. I couldn't be sure I was safe, but I didn't feel scared.
**Snowfolk:** We shrugged, gave him the money, and walked up the rough wooden stairs into a damp attic space overflowing with archival film reels.
It felt like we had discovered a gold mine.
**Snowfolk:** My youngest daughter's little voice called to me from her bedroom, begging for one more of my crazy improvised bedtime 'stories'.
We would both remember them for the rest of our lives.
**Snowfolk:** There were so many shooting stars that after a while we stopped pointing them out to each other.
It wasn't necessary. We hadn't seen each other in years, but the conversation flowed as freely as it always did.
**Snowfolk:** It was maybe the millionth time we had watched the movie, and the girls had fallen asleep halfway through.
But they were using me for a pillow, so I didn't care to move.
**Snowfolk:** I ducked out of the rain and into a ramen restaurant with a few people inside.
I sat at the end of the bar. No one noticed.
I was alone and completely anonymous.
I watched the fierce weather through the windows. It was a perfect moment.
**Snowfolk:** He was sitting on his porch, in that awkward beige jacket of his, staring out at something on the street.
He looked so old now. And then I wondered what I looked like to him?
## Snowfolk salesman

**Snowfolk:** I was a man. A *middle-class* man. I had a family. I tried my best to provide for them.
Never traveled much. No big adventures, really. Didn't have a lot of friends, just friendly acquaintances accumulated over a lifetime of sales work.
**Snowfolk:** I was a small child, playing under the brass coffee table.
Grandma had a brisket in the oven. It smelled so good.
**Snowfolk:** My mother walked me to the bus stop and brought a small chair that I could sit on while we waited.
The other kids didn't have one.
**Snowfolk:** We lived in a canyon.
The steep cliffs were so fun to ride down, and so scary.
And then one day I lost control. My memory ends there.
**Snowfolk:** Our car was always easy to spot.
It had the fake bougainvillea stitched to the antenna.
People stared, but my mother didn't care.
**Snowfolk:** A tall man in a suit walked into our store, and my father changed.
Fake smiles, fake laughs.
I only ever saw him like that in the store.
**Snowfolk:** It was a new car, a lot larger than I was used to.
So I drove slowly.
And thank god, because a child came running out into the street. Might have hit her.
**Snowfolk:** In the summers, sometimes we'd sleep at the beach.
One morning I woke up to find a large, friendly tarantula on my chest.
**Snowfolk:** My friend Barry was a character.
We'd pull up to the store to get some cigarettes, and he'd just leave the engine running while we went inside.
**Snowfolk:** There was a long pause before my father came out with it: I wasn't welcome back home.
Afterwards, I sat on that bed for a long time, staring at the phone in my lap.
**Snowfolk:** The Navy used cargo planes to transport personnel.
It frightened the hell out of me, the way it shook in the turbulence.
I never wanted to fly again.
**Snowfolk:** She had oversized glasses and a loose sweatshirt, and those really short shorts.
There was a lull in the conversation, but it didn't feel awkward.
**Snowfolk:** I caught him just as he was closing up and pitched him on a half-page ad.
He signed a check against the door.
Six thousand dollars for three minutes of work, not bad!
**Snowfolk:** My son was still young.
I scooped up some sand to show him the wiggling sandcrabs.
For the first time all day, he smiled, and he held one in the palm of his little hand.
**Snowfolk:** As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew I had gone too far.
I had a bad feeling in my stomach.
We wouldn't speak again for years.
**Snowfolk:** *Our pool.*
We couldn't stop laughing at the idea of it.
I took off my bathing suit so I could swim freely in the dark, chlorinated water.
I felt wonderful.
**Snowfolk:** I was already in bed.
I could hear the children in the other rooms getting ready, the grandchildren snoozing away.
A full house. I fell asleep so quickly.
**Snowfolk:** I was about to start soldering the tube socket, when I noticed the bored look in his eyes.
He wasn't interested in any of this.
I let him run off to play.
Now it was just me, and the buzzing fluorescent light above.
**Snowfolk:** They let me peer into the telescope longer than the others, I guess because I was old.
I could see the moons so clearly.
They were so very, very far away.
**Snowfolk:** It was surreal for *her* to be the one who needed help.
It didn't look right.
I made my way to her bed, holding the tray carefully so the baby carrots wouldn't roll off.
## Snowfolk teacher

**Snowfolk:** I was a school teacher. I taught English. Never had kids of my own. Never found my soulmate.
I lived quietly, and occupied myself with small hobbies. Like bird watching, and reading.
I guess that's not very impressive, is it? Not a very exciting life. Maybe even a little sad.
**Snowfolk:** I was 3 years old.
My mother had made split pea soup, and I gulped down bowl after bowl.
I remember my parents laughing in disbelief.
**Snowfolk:** We used to play on the ruins of an old fort in the woods behind my house.
One day I tore my dress on a nail. Mother was so upset.
**Snowfolk:** We heard clanging in the kitchen.
Mother and I ran in to find my baby sister covered in strawberry jam.
She looked at us with a big smile and said, 'Hi!'
**Snowfolk:** I was with my family. We were walking down a pier.
Suddenly, a woman screamed.
A fisherman had accidentally snared her arm with his fishing hook.
It bled a lot.
**Snowfolk:** My father didn't know I was there.
The burgers were frying in front of him, but he was just gazing out the window with those piercing blue eyes of his.
**Snowfolk:** The rain made a tremendous sound on the corrugated aluminum roofing over the porch.
Inside, we each reclined in our chairs to take a nap.
You could only hear the rain.
**Snowfolk:** It was impossibly sunny, and I was so proud.
We were just one of thousands of families parading over the bridge, but it felt like our special day.
**Snowfolk:** I felt very adult getting my little sisters dressed and fed in the morning.
I didn't tell Father, but I would have done it for free.
**Snowfolk:** We were waiting in the parking lot and I realized what was strange.
None of the cars here had any rust at all.
Each one looked brand new.
**Snowfolk:** It was a glorious old library.
The interior smelled like damp wood and every surface was ornate.
I sat at the same desk every time, next to the bright window with a view of the elm trees.
**Snowfolk:** I remained in the empty classroom for hours, thinking over and over again about what had happened.
This job was so hard. How was I going to do it every day??
**Snowfolk:** I was ready to cry.
Thick rows of black ants streamed from the window to every pantry cupboard… *again*!
I just wanted to give up.
**Snowfolk:** I had accidentally wandered off-trail, when I heard flapping.
I followed the sound and came upon a small pond filled to the brim with a flock of blue-winged teals.
All of it... just for me!
**Snowfolk:** My friends and I sat around the firepit, clutching our tea and cocoa, softly chatting.
I didn't expect so many to actually come. I was so happy.
**Snowfolk:** It was a pleasant surprise seeing Scott again; few students came back to visit me after they graduated.
I felt proud when he told me that he had found work as a writer.
He really was a funny kid.
**Snowfolk:** After the chaos of dinner and all the extended family running around, it felt so peaceful to slouch in the living room -- just the four of us.
**Snowfolk:** Everyone else had their nose in a phone or a magazine, but I was sitting straight up, looking out the small window at the clouds floating below us.
It seemed the sunset would last forever.
**Snowfolk:** I knew it was a mistake to visit our old house.
We'd sold it just a year ago.
I saw that the new owners had already dug up the jasmine in the front yard.
I drove off, tears blurring my vision.
**Snowfolk:** It was going to be a long afternoon.
The house was in perfect order, but I felt so empty.
My dog Charlie rested his chin on the cushion, peering up at me.
Neither of us moved.