In case you missed it, Wiarton Willie (or this particular incarnation)shuffled off his mortal coil last week and will be laid to rest today in Wiarton. Memorial services, including a eulogy, trumpet solo, and an "announcement about Willie’s ashes and an appropriate marker" will commence at 1:00 and conclude at 1:30.
As Roy MacGregor notes in today's Globe and Mail that, "It is not the first time he has died, the most famous demise coming in 1999 when, a few day's before Groundhog Day, Willie's handlers found him stiff and cold and sat on the story until the big day, when they gathered around an open casket that held -- to avoid the smell -- a fake groundhog that had been stuffed by a local taxidermist. They called that incident "Williegate," but it has hardly been the only incident. Groundhog Day in Canada, which some believe would be better held in April, began 50 years ago when a local man invited some friends up from the city, half buried a fake groundhog in the snow -- some maintain it was his wife's hat -- and then got the gullible Toronto media to buy into a story that it all meant spring was still six weeks away."
For those of you baffled by Willie-mania, I offer this explanation from Roy MacGregor: "We know Canadian humour doesn't always make sense to outsiders." In closing, I urge you to visit the memorial site and read the poem that ends with this stanza:
"Wiarton Willie was nine years old;
He manned his post for seven.
His spirit lives for evermore
In our hearts as well as heaven.
In the shadow of his statue,
Are his ashes, laid to rest.
He touched our lives so many ways;
We each were truly blessed."
Ah Willie, you served your country well. God Speed little rodent, God Speed.
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