Student took place of real groundhog

Anyone born on Feb. 1 has reason to celebrate — mostly because the birth wasn’t delayed long enough so it actually took place on Feb. 2. That delay would have been a traumatic experience as that baby grew a bit and aged a few years so as to be the brunt of jokes about groundhogs and shadows and other tormenting comments from schoolyard bullies.

In my elementary school the teacher of the day was innovative and made Feb. 2 a bit of a learning experience. In the days leading up to Groundhog Day, he would include bits and pieces about groundhogs in the lesson plan so that when Feb. 2 arrived, students in his school would know what to expect as far as furry weather forecasters were concerned.

We didn’t have our own groundhog but the teacher picked one of the boys to act as the groundhog and had him crawl into a blanket-filled box just moments before the rest of us would head outdoors to check on seeing or not seeing shadows.

Teacher, surrounded by his flock, used a pointed stick to knock on the box. Out popped the human guinea pig and we all cheered, not because he wasn’t suffering from frost bite but because there was no shadow to be seen. Bravo. The experiment meant there would be an early spring, and our own groundhog was a hero for the rest of the day because no shadow was evident. And we all got to enjoy hot chocolate as a special treat for this Feb. 2 adventure.

I do not think we conducted this exercise again on subsequent Feb. 2 dates. I suspect there might have been some parental displeasure regarding a student being put into a box outdoors on a cold day in February, even for a short time. But if that happened, we youngsters never heard about it, not even by eavesdropping on adult conversations.

I’m sure if there had been a complaint at the home and school meeting that month, the teacher could have explained it as a teaching moment, or even better, that we in rural communities dressed for cold weather and that our groundhog was suitably attired for the experiment.

That teacher stayed at the school for three years, obviously weathering any complaint that attempted to cloud our learning moment.

I’ve lost track of the student who emerged from the box but it would be interesting to talk to him today to find out if he’s suffered any long-term side effects from being stuffed in that box. Does he remember if his parents or other adults were upset and also important, how did the teacher pick him and convince him to go along with the plan?

So many questions, so few answers, but some interesting memories of how the celebration of Groundhog Day took place in a rural community school in the mid-1950s. We did have some unusual moments of fun, and learned some things too, even using a stand-in groundhog in place of the real deals of Phil and Willie.

Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net

The views and opinions expressed in this article are THOSE OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REflECT THE position of this publication.