Frosty got run over by a columnist

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“A mystery person left a big box on our front porch with a brand new Frosty hat,” said Fran Postel. “This mystery person did not sign their name.” Karie Angell Luc~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: January 23, 2012 10:42AM

I stood on my neighbor’s front lawn one Sunday.

And while the Postels knew I would swing by, why did I feel like an interloper?

I was expected, so I wasn’t trespassing. Photojournalists typically remain on public right-of-ways like streets or sidewalks.

I snapped mugshots of Frosty the Snowman (although I deserved the mugshot here).

Guiltily looking around, I saw no runaway sleigh. Good, no danger of getting run over by a reindeer.

Rewind to 2008. I was driving home with my son Casey. Up ahead was this black thing in the road’s center. A garbage bag?

Ah, just cardboard blown by winds!

It wasn’t moving. My senses didn’t detect skunk (although many would love the skunk population reduced).

Crunch. Oops. Too crunchy for a skunk. I backed up.

My heart sank.

A smushed formalwear top hat!

“Mom, why did you run it over?” asked Casey.

Mortified me figured this flat hat came from that Snowman lamppost decoration down the street. I hurried to the Internet.

I contacted Shamrock Plastics in downstate Peoria. Please, oh please, save Frosty! I was too scared to talk to my neighbors, whom I didn’t know well.

Guess who came through? Luckily not reindeer! Rhonda Jones of Shamrock Plastics, which makes “Lamplighter” yard post decorations, sent me a new Frosty top hat — for free!

I placed Shamrock’s box on a front porch near you with an anonymous note.

Some time later, at a Northbrook Junior High School band recital of all places, I mustered up the nerve to fess up to Fran Postel who (thankfully) laughed.

Last fall, I contacted Shamrock Plastics of my intentions to publicly confess in a column, no less.

Would Rhonda Jones recall silly Grinch me?

“Of course I remember you,” replied Jones, who graciously responded to that 2008 inquiry.

“How could I forget someone who cares so much for their neighbors?”

Whew, I felt better.

“You went that extra mile to make it right for them and it’s sad that there are not more people like you in this world today.”

Rhonda, group hug!

Shamrock Plastics (www.shamrockplastics.net) has nearly 50 employees and Shamrock’s American-made Lamplighters are top-sellers.

“It’s a great little company to work for,” said Jones, a 30-year employee.

“The owner and president, Mary Cay Westphal, is here every day and makes a point to go through the shop to say hello to every employee every day.”

“She (Westphal) quotes our website: ‘For us, it’s personal.’”

Each December, Shamrock hosts a catered lunch where employees swap funny stories (oh no, maybe mine?).

“Please send me a clipping if it (Snapshot column) does appear in your paper so I can show everyone,” said Jones.

Of their party: “We even have a couple of guys from the shop who sing Christmas Carols for us — it’s a lot of fun, but we really cut loose on St. Patrick’s Day.”

“Having a name like Shamrock really makes us all a little more Irish.”

Shamrock’s employees are “required to wear something green (March 17) and boy if someone forgets it is bad news.”

Said Jones: “The owner personally checks everyone for their green and some of the costumes are hilarious.”

But I wear red, still blushing when I see the Postels. I can’t help it. I’m so glad I didn’t find out until later Joseph Postel is a law firm partner.

Are the Postels fans of the 1969 Rankin and Bass TV special, “Frosty the Snowman?”

“Sorry, don’t know the movie but you both killed and saved Frosty,” deadpanned Joseph Postel, a 29-year attorney.

My lawyer friend represents “policyholders who are sued in accident cases.”

“Frankly, we should have filed suit on behalf of Frosty, but I was afraid that you were insured by one of my clients,” he joked (I hope).

“Remember the song, ‘Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer’?” asked Joseph, referring to the 1979 song by Randy Brooks.

“Perhaps you could call your story, “Frosty Got Run Over By a Columnist.” Fair enough. I’ll settle.

To this probable future grandma (I have six kids) — will I ever get run over by a reindeer?

“That would be cosmic justice!” Joseph quipped.

Said Fran (sounding not at all frosty): “I just figured it (top hat) was blown off by the wind.”

“I was absolutely amazed that anybody would bother to go out of their way to replace the plastic hat.”

“Now when I look out at Frosty the Snowman, I sometimes get a chuckle.”

Thanks Fran. Thanks, Rhonda and (gulp) Joseph.

But sorry Frosty, you better watch out, you better not cry: “I think this Christmas season, we’ll reinforce Frosty’s hat with Gorilla tape,” Fran promises.

At least Gorilla tape wasn’t named after the Abominable Snowman.