Story Hour
Sidney's Giant Acorn
Written by Gene B. Williams
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squirrels playing
squirrels playing in a tree
Sidney’s brothers and sisters and cousins were all scampering in the branches and on the ground. Sarah, Suzie, Sammy, Steven, Susan, Seth, Sally, Stuart, Shakey and Sheldon were jittery, quivery, twitchery streaks of chattering fur. “It’s Spring!” They danced in the trees, and hopped in the grass … the way silly squirrels do.
They weren’t just playing, though. It would be Mother’s Day, so the squirrel family was busy gathering acorns for their Mom. Of course, sometimes they’d forget and start to play tag or hide-n-seek again. Sidney wanted to play, but he was more determined to find the biggest, best acorn ever for Mom on Mother’s Day.
It was Spring. It was May. Winter was barely over. Most of the acorns were tiny and green and bitter. Of course, there were still acorns from the Fall. Not many were left. What the squirrels hadn’t eaten or buried weren’t much to brag about, or were high in the trees, even for squirrels. Sidney went through the branches. He scampered on the ground and under the bushes. He dug up spots where he was sure he’d buried some prime acorns. Nope. Not here. Not there. Somehow he just couldn’t remember. (Squirrels almost never take the time to make a map.)
Have you ever seen a squirrel bury acorns? Sure you have. Have you ever seen a squirrel make a map to find those buried treasures? Probably not.
Well … Sidney was having a terrible time. He couldn’t quite remember where he’d buried the best of the acorns. And he couldn’t find any new acorns special enough for Mother’s Day.
Not far from the woods where the squirrel families lived was a field of corn. (There was no corn this time of year.) Next to that was a garden. For all the squirrels, that corn field was a delicious lunchroom. (That didn’t make the farmer very happy but squirrels rarely worry about such things.) The garden, at least to Sidney, was pure magic. All sorts of strange and wonderful things grew there … there behind that darned fence that sometimes had traps inside.
One day he found fat, red, juicy things shaped like cones. These were strawberries, but Sidney didn’t know that. All he knew was that they were sweet and juicy – and that it didn’t do much good to bury them for later. Even when he remembered where he buried one, when he got back to it, it was either all mushy or gone.
Another day he tried to nibble on some long green pods with soft seeds inside (green beans). They were okay, as were the fat green tubes (zucchini), although he didn’t care much for the red, round balls (tomatoes). In the Fall, he loved those tall plants with the big yellow flowers and dark seeds (sunflowers) but they were hard to climb.
On this day as he prowled around he came across a patch that had been forgotten since last fall. It had been buried under the winter snow. That’s where he found just what he’d been looking for. There in the weeds was the biggest acorn he’d ever seen! It was nearly as big as Sidney himself! Yes, it was green and orange, not the comforting brown of a regular acorn. Yes, it had funny looking ribs, not the smooth shell of a regular acorn. It wasn’t like any acorn he’d ever seen before in all his whole year of life.
You and I know that it wasn’t an acorn at all but an acorn squash. But then, we’re not silly squirrels. (At least I’m not! Are you? I’ve never heard of a squirrel reading Nicker Stories before.) And we’re just a little more than a year old, aren’t we. We know things!
To Sidney, this looked like an acorn – and he wanted an acorn – so it must BE an acorn. It must be a special, magical acorn. It was a special, magical acorn put there just for him so he could bring it home as a special, magical gift for Mother’s Day.
He found a place in the fence big enough for him to get through. It was even big enough to get the giant acorn through, if he worked hard. To Sidney’s surprise, the giant acorn had somehow gotten attached to some kind of vine. He chewed that off to get the acorn loose. “Mmm, that’s tasty,” he said to himself. He made a mental note, and a mental map, so he could come back and chew on the vine later.
He tried to lift the acorn in his mouth. It was too heavy. He tried to push it. The ribs of the acorn went thump thump thump on the ground, and the giant acorn didn’t want to roll in a straight line. It was hard work, but Sidney managed to get the acorn/squash/acorn squash out of the field and to the edge of the woods. Then he needed a rest. WHEW!
As he panted from the hard work and thought about how much farther he had to go, his sister Sarah came up.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“It’s a giant acorn,” Sidney said, “for Mother’s Day.”
Sarah sniffed at it. “It doesn’t look much like an acorn.” She gave it a lick to taste. “It doesn’t taste much like an acorn.”
“That’s because it is a special giant acorn,” Sidney explained.
Sarah sniffed it again and said, “It looks heavy. Can I help?”
The two got their noses under it, and their paws over it. It was still hard work but it rolled more easily with two of them. The ribs of the acorn went thump thump thump again, but faster. Even so, it wasn’t long before Sidney and Sarah were tired.
As they took a rest, their brother Steven came along. “What’s that?”
Sidney said, “It’s a special giant acorn for Mother’s Day.”
Steven said, “It’s too big to be an acorn.”
“That’s because it’s a giant acorn,” said Sarah. “It might even be magical.”
That’s all Steven needed to hear. “Can I help?”
With three of them using their noses and paws, the acorn that wasn’t an acorn didn’t just go thump thump thump, it went thumpthumpthump. They were going so fast that they all smacked and squashed into Sheldon. Sheldon was busy hunting for regular acorns and hadn’t even heard the thumpthumpthump coming in his direction – not until the THUMP when the giant acorn and three squirrels became a giant acorn and FOUR squirrels, all in a rolling ball.
“What is that?” Sheldon wanted to know after he got managed to get untangled.
“It’s a magical giant acorn,” said Steven with importance. “We’re bringing it home for Mother’s Day.”
Sidney didn’t like that much. It was supposed to be his present for Mother’s Day. Before he could say anything, Sarah said, “We found it in the woods.”
Sidney got a bit loud. “I’m the one who found it!”
“Well, yeah … Sidney helped to find it,” Sarah and Steven said together, “so it’s partly his Mother’s Day present.”
“Can I help?” asked Sheldon. “Then it can be MY Mother’s Day present, too.”
Soon the four squirrels had the giant acorn rolling along again. Susan Squirrel saw. She didn’t bother to ask anything, she just jumped in and began pushing and rolling with the others. A cousin, Shakey Squirrel, and his cousin Stuart, and his sister Sammy and her cousin Serena and her brother Stanley all joined in. Sometimes a squirrel would roll over the top, and get caught beneath. It didn’t take long before this was part of the game. A ball of chattering, rolling fur with a magical, giant acorn that wasn’t an acorn crashed through the leaves and twigs on the ground. It seemed to be more like a snowball that grew in size as it rolled along, gathering more and more squirrels as it went.
There was no more thumpthumpthump. The giant acorn was moving so fast was more of a thpthpthpthpthpthp. Finally there was a kaBOOM as the whole ball of noisy fur smashed into the bottom of the oak tree where Sidney and his family lived. Squirrels flew through the air from the crash. So did something else.
The squirrels barely noticed that the acorn squash had broken open. Steven was the first to notice. It was Steven who ended up between the giant acorn and the tree in the crash. It was Steven’s body, as much as the tree, that caused the giant acorn to break open. He was covered with sticky orange pulp. It was Steven who had sticky seeds stuck to his fur.
For the others, the crash caused a shower of acorns from above. The squirrels scampered around trying to grab as many real acorns as possible. All poor Sidney could do was sit back. He had a tear in his eye. His giant acorn – his special, magical Mother’s Day gift – was a mushy mess, with much of it on Steven. Smashed. Ruined. Destroyed.
Steven wasn’t happy, either. At least not yet. He didn’t like being smacked against the tree. Even more, he didn’t like being an orange, sticky mess. As he started to clean himself, he said, “This is pretty good.” Then he nibbled on one of the sticky seeds. Suddenly he smiled. “This is GREAT!” he said out loud – very loud – as he grabbed and munched another seed.
The others stopped, watched a while, then scampered over. Cautious at first, each sampled a seed. It didn’t take long before they were all gobbling those seeds like candy. As they did, what remained of the giant, magic acorn was torn to pieces. It was messier than ever before.
“My acorn!” Sidney cried out. “My special, magic, giant Mother’s Day acorn!!! It’s ruined. What can I give to her now?”
A gentle voice came from high up. It said his name, “Sidney.”
He looked up. There was his mother. She was watching the other squirrels. She was watching him.
“Quickly, before they are all gone, go get some of the seeds,” she said.
Sidney went as fast as he could and stuffed his cheeks with seeds. That wasn’t easy. The stuffing part was easy – squirrels are very good at that. But those seeds really were delicious and he wanted to eat them all. He remembered that it was Mother’s Day, though, and climbed back up the tree, his mouth stuffed with seeds and set them down.
“Now, before the others see, go get more. As many as you can. Run. Find hidden spots and bury the seeds. Go quick before the seeds are all gone.”
Sidney did as he was told. With his cheeks bulging with seeds, he found some hidden spots beneath bushes where he liked to bury things. With the seeds buried (most of them, anyway – he saved a few more for himself and for his mother). When he got back to the oak tree, not much was left of the giant acorn that was to be a Mother’s Day present. It had been gobbled and gored and gutted and chewed and chomped and … well, the squirrels hadn’t left much of it. Sidney climbed the tree.
He looked at the pile of seeds he’d brought up earlier and said sadly. “I had a giant, magical acorn for Mother’s Day. It was the biggest ever seen! And it was special. The inside was orange and sticky. I’ve never seen an acorn that was orange inside. Oh, Mother, I wanted it to be the best present ever.”
She nuzzled him, just as she had so many times when he was a kit – a baby. “It was a wonderful present,” she said, “but it wasn’t an acorn. It was a squash.”
Sidney thought about how it smashed into the tree, opened up and how the other squirrels ripped it apart until it was a total mess. He sighed. “It sure was a squash. It squashed all over the place.”
“I mean a real squash. Not an acorn. It looks something like an acorn, but just because something looks like something doesn’t mean it is something. Isn’t that something?”
As he tried to figure that out, his mother said, “Have a seed.”
“Those are for Mother’s Day,” Sidney replied. Sadly he said, “It’s all that is left of the giant acorn.”
“Where you buried the seeds, this fall we might get more of them. For now … have a seed.”
So … he did.
And so did his mother.
squirrel buries nuts
Note to the Readers:
In general, soft-skinned squash come in the early summer. These are like zuchinni and yellow squash. The hard-skinned squash, like acorn squash and pumpkins, usually get harvested in the fall. That’s one reason we have pumpkins for Halloween. The seeds inside the different kinds of squash somewhat match their outsides. The seeds of a summer squash are usually soft. You barely notice eating them. The autumn squashes have seeds that are often much larger and harder. It’s not unusual to carve a pumpkin then clean and roast the seeds. YUMMY!
In the fall, squirrels and other animals store food. A lot of this is inside. In other words, they eat a LOT and get kinda fat. Some also store food, such as nuts and seeds, in their nests. Another “trick” is to bury the nuts and seeds. During the winter, they will dig in the snow. Mostly they feed on whatever plants they can find under the snow. Now and then they stumble on a buried nut or seed, but this is more by chance. Squirrels don’t know how to make maps.
When spring comes, the trees and bushes grow buds. Fortunately, all those plants usually make enough buds and sprouts to feed the squirrels and still have a healthy year for the plants themselves. Through the summer and into the fall, more seeds grow and ripen – including acorns. They get so ripe that they fall from the oak trees. Other kinds of seeds are also ripening, falling, and blowing in the wind. Meanwhile, down on the ground, some plants, like squash, are growing and ripening their own seeds.
Sidney found an acorn squash. It has a hard, thick skin – almost a shell. Cutting into it takes some effort. (We use a cleaver and a heavy hammer.) They grow on a vine. People harvest them before the seeds inside can get too large – and before the squash freezes solid in the winter. Now and then, some will grow wild, or get missed. Then … sometimes … a squirrel just might find it. Then … just maybe … he or they will find a way to get inside.
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