Ahhhh .

Thursday, November 02, 2000

Ahhhh … a day off.

A time to kick back and relax, catch up on things or stop to smell the coffee.

A time to reflect on what has been or look ahead and ponder the future.

A time watch Larry Dolphin do the mating dance of the wild prairie chicken.

I remember when Mr. Dolphin used to dress as dirt. He was Terra Firma and he would wear layers of soil to tell the story of how the earth was formed.

That was years ago. Now, he has grown up to performing mating dances.

Go figure.

Mr. Dolphin, director, naturalist and very concerned citizen at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center, hosted a visit by third graders from Banfield Elementary School a week ago on Oct. 26.

Teacher Marcia Wilson and paraprofessional Dale Rogers (I’m not kidding. That’s her real name.) recruited Yours Truly to help chaperone five or six hundred third graders (at least, it seemed that way) on an outing to the popular Nature Center.

It was an opportunity for some hands-on education in the area of environmental science and wildlife habitat.

We rode a bus to the Nature Center. The cool kids sat in back. I sat in front with my grandson. Quinton, who promised to be my bodyguard for the morning’s field trip.

When we arrived, we had the Nature Center to ourselves. There was no one else around.

Mr. Dolphin and a sidekick invited us into the Ruby Rupner Auditorium, where we all sat in a circle, while the director/naturalist/very concerned citizen introduced us to our morning’s agenda.

We learned many things.

For instance, the deer population is growing so fast and so large, they are literally eating their way out of the Nature Center and a controlled hunt may be required to harvest a portion of their population.

I was sitting Indian style, when Mr. Dolphin demonstrated the mating dance of the wild prairie chicken.

I don’t know … maybe that’s why he was hired: to make strange noises, screw his face into unusual contortions, flap his arms like a bird and walk around in circles at a rapid pace.

For a moment, I thought it was one of the tests they use to determine who should run for political office.

If ever there was an opportunity to want to hypnotize a chicken, this was it.

Unfortunately, Mr. Dolphin’s mating dance of the wild prairie chicken had the rest of us spellbound with laughter.

When he was through, we went outdoors and played "Go Deer." That is, we all went outdoors after three or four third graders graciously assisted me in standing once again after sitting Indian style through the session.

Mr. Dolphin uses the game of "Go Deer" to illustrate how dependent the deer is upon wildlife habitat.

Everybody enjoyed playing the game and got the message: without habitat, deer won’t survive.

Then, we were paired into two groups. Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Rogers chose their students and I was assigned a group that included Tim, Hannah, Jack, Justin, Danny, Zach, Peter, Sydney, Hailee, Ashley, Sam and grandson Quinton, of course.

With Mr. Dolphin in the lead, we were challenged to find eight different learning stations using a compass. If we couldn’t remember the four directions on the compass, a couple of the smarter third graders taught us to remember "Never Eat Slimy Worms" as a substitute for North, East, South, West.

My group found each of the stations easily and answered all questions perfectly, while Mr. Dolphin and Yours Truly brought up the rear.

When our outdoors classroom ended, we all thanked Mr. Dolphin and his sidekick for a great time, board our bus and returned to Banfield Elementary School.

That’s where the trouble began.

Robert sat down beside me, still sitting up front with the teachers, and he started asking a lot of questions, so I asked some questions of him.

It was a mistake.

"How old do you think I am, Robert?" I asked this wise guy. Without hesitation, Robert responded, "80!"

Next time, I’m riding in back with the cool kids.

Thanks, teachers and third graders. It was a blast!