He Put a Snowball in His Freezer in 1987. His Mom Has Saved It All This Time (Exclusive)

• Dan Bell was one of many kids captivated when a snowstorm dropped tons of snow on his neighborhood unexpectedly on Veteran's Day 1987

• The early-season snow was something Bell wanted to remember, so he saved some snow in his freezer

• The snow, saved in the freezer in a quarter-machine pod inside two cups, has a bit of ice still remaining to this day

A kid's fun snow day idea has the Internet talking.

Dan Bell, a filmmaker and director, recently shared a true gem with his Instagram followers. In a cup living in the depths of his parents' freezer was a snowball from a November 1987 storm that he'd held onto for all these years.

Bell tells PEOPLE he saved the snow from a memorable snowstorm on Veteran's Day 1987 that caused quite a stir in the the Baltimore area.

"The idea came, first, from me being 10 years old. I just remember it wasn't even winter yet. It was still fall and we had this sort of freak storm happen where we were all stuck at school in elementary school. The snow was supposed to turn into rain and then it didn't," he recalls.

"It just kept snowing. I live in the Baltimore area, so it's unusual to have a storm like that early in the season. It caused a lot of turmoil, so that's probably why I thought to keep the snow."

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Bell also picked a vessel fitting of the specimen: a Kmart quarter machine toy pod.

"There was this local Kmart that had these prize machines outside the front of the store. We would always put the quarters in and get the prizes and they came in these little plastic shells. I put the snow in one of those little plastic shells and put it in my parents' freezer, where it's stayed for all these years," he shares.

Of course, Bell didn't always remember it was there. After a few years of being dedicated to keeping an eye on it, he forgot about the memento.

However, "in the last few years, I asked my mom, 'Do you still have that snowball that I kept from 1987?' She said, 'I don't think so. I think we threw it away.' Then I went to their house and I opened the freezer and looked down at the bottom and there it was," Bell continues.

"I was like, 'Oh my God!' I was like I was reunited with an old friend."

That's when Bell decided to share his rediscovered treasure in a video shared on TikTok and Instagram. He thought his audience, used to his penchant for the nostalgic, would appreciate what's left of the snowball.

"My local mall opened that same year. It's kind of weird because that mall is dead and then the little snow globe only has a tiny bit of ice left in it. So over a period of 37-plus years, it has slowly evaporated," he says.

"I didn't really pay attention after I posted it, and then one of my viewers sent me a video that it had been reposted on YouTube and had like 20 or 30 million views. Then I saw it go viral on TikTok and it did also go viral on my Instagram."

While going viral is entertaining, Bell notes that there were some commenters who were "unhinged," insisting he made the story up.

"I understand people who don't believe it because I see stuff online all the time that I don't believe. But I can assure everyone this is actually real," he says.

Laughing, he adds, "Let's say I came up with this idea to do a fake Instagram video. If I went to my mom and said, 'Hey Mom, let's pretend I collected this snow on this random day 37 years ago. Can you play along?' There's no way in hell she would do it. She's all about honesty."

Read the original article on People