Telling Time

Mom was reminding me it was time for the clocks to “fall back”. Some sort of funny pun to remember to change the clocks for Daylight Savings Time. We chipmunks have never understood this strange custom. Despite all the fiddling with the clocks, there are still the same number of hours of daylight. By now you’re thinking, chipmunks probably don’t even know what a clock is. I have to pick Chippy Jr. up after school, there are newspaper deadlines to meet, and of course there are all those chores the wife wants done. I could never manage without a clock to keep me on time.

Learning to tell time is one of the big lessons that chipmunks learn in their first semester of school. The teachers still use the old reliable paper clock face with moveable hands in their lessons. Here are some photos from the class:

“What am I supposed to do?” (Someone wasn’t paying attention to the lesson.)

This is the chipmunk equivalent of “spit balls.” Someone is getting a detention tonight.

Here is my son Chippy Jr. correctly setting the clock to 12:15.

Mom dropped by the kids class the other day. She showed everyone a device she got at the flea market. It looked really old. It had numbers on it like a clock and a shadow casting rod. She called it a “sundial” and said this was what creatures told time with before electric clocks and smart phones. Not surprisingly, the kids couldn’t imagine a world without electricity and batteries to power their phones, tablets, computers, televisions, and light their burrows. (Well that lesson will have wait for the history class).

One the students asked “how does it work?” The teacher didn’t know so the whole class went to the school library. They found a book on sundials.

Listen up kids. Tomorrow, we will be going on a field trip to the Woodpile to test the sundial. The forecast is for a sunny day. I know some of you have some doubts about this contraption actually working. We are going conduct our own scientific experiment.

[Next Day] Wow, it really works. Hey, it says it is time for lunch!