Woodchuck

1880s, Waupun WI



This is a story Aunt Lois (Parsons) McWhorter, Fond du Lac [1877-1966+], wrote of her childhood in Waupun:



A family lived in our block back in Waupun about five down from us. The head of the household was a retired farmer who kept a cow, and a few neighbors were his customers, we one of them, and our families were forever playing jokes on the other, and our neighbor was one of them. He was forever bragging about being such a good shot.



The woodchuck was given to us kids to play with, which we did by hiding it and the other children looking for it. Then my mother [Martha Newton Parsons, 1855-1923] got into it. She told one of the children to go down to Mr. Ray's home and tell him to come to our lot, as there was a woodchuck under our barn. He came all right and took a shot at the stuffed woodchuck, which he didn't hit, and he was all ready to shoot for the second time when mother and several neighbors called out, "April Fool." Our milk man didn't know which way to turn. He took his rifle and got out of there in a hurry and was called Woodchuck as long as he lived. On the way out he mumbled that he never would live that down.