When Harry Met Rand McNally

Harry holds a photo of the McMurdo Research Station, Antarctica

In case you haven’t read my blog lately or seen my endless Facebook updates or don’t really know me well, or at all… I’ve been on something of an Antarctic kick lately.   I mean like, I am obsessed. 

I won’t rehash the last six months, but my students have had some pretty thrilling and unique opportunities to get up close and personal with the continent in general and penguins in particular.  I think it’s a place I need to visit someday.

As I prattled on and rattled through our prairie school building blathering and gushing about penguins and researchers and the wonders of Skype, the in-house maintenance man, Harry stopped me in the hall one day.  He had heard about our Southern Hemisphere adventures.  “You know I’ve been to Antarctica,” he calmly stated.  I arched an eyebrow.  “Really?” I said with a bit of shock.  “Aww, I’ve been there thirteen times,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.  He couldn’t stop the slow smile that spread across his weathered face at the look of shock on my quasi hippie face.  I stared, speechless.  “Wait, are you telling me that… wait... WHAT?!?”  He leaned heavily on the snow shovel in his hand and grinned.  “I guess I’ve been all over the world.” 

Turns out our Harry used to work for the National Science Foundation as a government contractor.  He has zigzagged literally all over this big blue marble, once even working for NASA to set up a transmission tower at McMurdo.  I just had no idea.  No idea at all.  I couldn’t ask questions fast enough and begged him to soon be a guest of honor in the Magic Tree House and regale us with stories.

When our second Skype chat was arranged, I asked Harry if he wanted to sit in on it.  Did he ever!  As the Darlings asked their carefully rehearsed questions of the researcher, Jean Pennycook (dang, I love that name), Harry had a few questions of his own.  He piped up every few minutes with a new question for Jean, obviously enjoying his walk down memory lane.  Finally I handed the digital mic to him and urged him to talk to her directly.  She was honored to speak to a man that had helped build her research facilities at McMurdo.  She and Harry sort of forgot there were five cute-as-pie first graders sitting (shockingly) quiet, waiting for the focus to return back to them.  When Harry took his chair again, he was grinning from ear to ear. 

Today he showed up with boxes of artifacts.  He unloaded them on our round work table and began to pass around faded photographs of ice pack hovercrafts, icy runways, unattractive industrial buildings, himself posing with penguins and seals, breathtaking volcanic mountains, and certificates awarded for his spectacular work in the name of science.  He had rocks and driftwood.  He had mess hall napkins imprinted with the McMurdo name.  He had a ball.  And so did we.  

It was the perfect cap to our unit of study.  I mean, books and video feed are great.  But… this guy has been there!  It doesn’t get any more personal than that.  Our own Harry who throws salt on icy sidewalks and keeps that old beast of a furnace pumping hot air into our vacuous building has lived the very the things we have read about.

Perhaps my favorite photo was the one he took at the South Pole, the absolute bottom of the world.  And by the way, try explaining to first graders why you aren’t upside down and fall off the earth when you’re in Antarctica.  Gravity shmavity.  It makes no sense to them, WHATSOEVER.

ANYHOO, I am nearly finished with the book, “South with the Sun” by Lynne Cox, which recounts the first person to achieve the South Pole.  In 1911, Roald Amundsen claimed the title in the name of Norway where others had tried and failed, many of them giving their very lives for the bragging rights. 

As I stared at the grainy image of the white bleakness of the geographic pole, marked by a literal pole (believe it or not) and the flags of explorers who also conquered the feat in the name of their home countries, I was reminded of the spirit of adventure and courage that picture represents.  Man is so tenacious in his desire to see all of this great world.  I share that longing, in some small measure.  I am afraid I own the soul of an adventurer. 

And so when I read of Amundsen and Byrd and others who faced great odds and did the previously impossible, I am impressed, and a little envious.  Harry has taken his own rightful place in my mind of great world adventurers.  He has been to places and seen things that I never will and has stories to entertain and educate.  Harry rocks. 

To commemorate the day, he generously donated a chunk of Antarctic rock covered with spiny moss to our Discovery table – a true and irreplaceable treasure. It might as well be from the Moon itself.

Thanks, Harry.  It just goes to show that people are so deliciously surprising.  Everyone has their own story to tell. 

Harry will be happy to tell you his…

Roald Amundsen on his historic expedition

Antarctic Skype II

Today was Skype #2 with our Antarctic researcher, Jean Pennycook.  Again, we brainstormed for questions beforehand and practiced speaking into the microphone.  We even had a gallery of guests for this visit (more on that later).

This time when we connected we heard the sweet chirping of baby chicks, which are almost a month old now.  They began hatching December 9^th, the day after our last Skype with Jean. 

As we chatted with Jean, the penguins began crowding around her laptop and she told us that penguins are very curious creatures and were actually responding to the sound of our voices!  I can hardly wrap my brain around the fact that the voices of my North Dakota first graders caused a stir in a penguin colony near the South Pole.  Incredible and mind-blowing.

She also told us the penguins we named, Blackie and Snowy, were occupying Nest #1 and they had two chicks.  The mom, Snowy, is away from the nest right now getting food and they are waiting for her return.  After our visit I went to the website and we saw pictures of “our” penguins along with script crediting our class with the names.  We’re famous!  You can see for yourself at the following link.  Scroll down the page to Nest #1 to see pictures and our name mentioned.

http://www.penguinscience.com/education/royds_nestcheck.php

Nest #1 daily progress:
http://www.penguinscience.com/education/nest_1.php

Now about that special guest…

In the hallway one day not too long ago, the school maintenance man, Harry, stopped me and told me he had heard about our previous video chat.  Then he knocked my socks off when he told me he had been to Antarctic THIRTEEN TIMES!  Wait… WHAT?!

Turns out he used to work for the National Science Foundation and traveled doing construction for their projects.  He told Jean today that he helped build the lab at McMurdo Station.  She was amazed and thanked him for helping build the very facility she uses during her research time there.  Harry grinned from ear to ear.  We cheered and called him our hero.  It was a priceless moment.  He is planning to bring boxes of artifacts to school in a couple of weeks and do a “Show and Share” with the Darlings.  We can’t wait.  I think Harry’s pretty jazzed too.

What a day. 

To hear the giggles of my landlocked prairie children as they watched the antics of those entertaining, noisy, mischievious birds is icing on my middle-aged, quasi-hippie cake. 

A note about the video:  It is lengthy (12 min.) and the first couple of minutes are fraught with technical troubles.  You might want to fast forward to about 1:20 minutes to avoid all of that. Also, due to the video camera angle, the screen appears to be washed out, but our picture was crystal clear and breathtakingly beautiful.