Nicole Frutiger

Are you tired of the lung freezing weather? A trip to the Agricultural Heritage Museum might be something for you. The exhibit “Skunk Tales and Gopher Holes” is sure to warm your spirit and it does not cost anything.

“Skunk Tales and Gopher Holes” displays memories of the one room school house era during the beginning of the century. Composed of memories from students as well as teachers, the exhibits sheds light on a way of life we probably can’t quite imagine.

Many of the stories are humorous. One person recalls how a skunk on the porch dismissed school for a day, when its inevitable stench drove pupils and teachers home.

A lady explains how two boys got in trouble by putting huge snowballs on the lids in the girls’ outhouse. A teacher tells about entering the classroom, finding it empty, devoid of desks and chairs. Upon looking into the ceiling beams, she finds not only all desks and chairs but the villains who put them there as well.

The exhibit also illustrates the conditions of going to school and being a teacher during that era. It describes the blackboard, which was made out of boards and painted black.

Lunch was prepared by placing students’ soup bowls in hot water on the stove, which the teacher had to bring along with a bucket of coal. Sometimes for dessert, someone would bring homemade ice cream, before serving it, the ice cream had to be dug out of the snowbank outside where it was kept cool.

The exhibit will be on display until the end of the year.

For more information, contact the Agricultural Heritage Museum at 688-6226.