Show and Tell - Snakes
Miss May was our grade four teacher at the Parkview Elementary School. It was her first year teaching and Thelma Smith, the elementary school music teacher, made a special point of asking us to go easy on her because she was new.
From time-to-time class members would bring show and tell items to school. There were two times that I brought things to show the class. The first time, I brought a display of things from dad’s business, an electromagnet I had built, some pistons, an electric motor from an old vacuum and various other mechanical devices. The presentation went well, and I was asked to do my show and tell presentation to the grade five class as well.
My second show and tell was not so well accepted. For my presentation I brought a cardboard box of garter snakes I had caught along Lee Creek behind our home. The snakes weirded out some kids, but they did capture the student’s attention so Miss May agreed to keep the snakes in the class for a while so we could study them. I had made a makeshift cover for the box out of a piece of window screen. The first night at the school, all the snakes escaped. They were nowhere to be found, until late in the day when the students were gone, teachers working late would be surprised by a curious snake slithering across the hardwood floor. The snakes had secreted themselves into the walls of the school where they lived for a time on the resident population of mice. I suspect in time they may have left the school or died of thirst.
During the snake infestation, several teachers chose not to stay at the school and work late.
Miss Doreen May married Fred Henderson and they live in the Calgary West Stake.
October 4, 2024
Here is a Google Notebook LM audio created from the above text.