The Home of the WHAT?

At the end of February, we had a trip to a relatively small town, Olney, in southern Illinois. Interestingly enough, this is the town in which I was born 30-some years ago! After church, we decided to make two quick stops on our way back to my parents' home. The first stop was at the hospital where I was born. It was fun to show Gerson my birthplace.

The second stop was at the Olney City Park. You see, Olney is know for its white squirrels. I have told Gerson for years that my birthplace is famous for these phenomenal and beautiful critters. Gerson has always been a bit skeptical, to say the least! I decided it was time for him to witness them firsthand.

We knew were at the right place when we passed the "Squirrel Crossing" sign!

Little did we know, however, that this sign depicted very well just how close we'd get to a REAL white squirrel!

We also stopped on our entrance into the park to read the history of the gray albino squirrel, now known as the Olney white squirrel. Then we went a-lookin'. We drove around the park a couple of times, but only saw brown squirrels! We saw a man walking through the park with his kids and I rolled down my window a called out, "Sir, where can we find the WHITE squirrels?" The man replied with a chuckle, "Well, normally they are everywhere. I don't know where they are today." Then he pointed us in the direction of a cage where they had a couple squirrels for people like us to see in case the squirrels weren't out and about.

We drove to the large cage and Gerson got out to see if he could finally lay eyes on the famous white squirrels. He looked high and low, but to no avail. There were NO white squirrels IN that cage, only one painted white squirrel on the sign above the cage. This only made Gerson's suspicions grow that the white squirrel was just a big hoax and a local legend.

Of course, that belief was only strengthened when Gerson decided to look up at the trees one more time on his way back to the car. Oh, he found a white squirrel, all right, but it was PORCELAIN! He snapped this picture and gleefully showed it to me as he entered the car. Yup, he's sure it's a local legend and nothing more. I know better. I've seen the real white squirrels. Unfortunately, when I was a little girl I didn't think to take pictures of the amazing creatures!

So, bye-bye Olney, Illinois (with or without your white squirrels!). We WILL be back! Before we go, however, I'll be sure to send a note to the squirrels asking them to make an appearance to diminish the doubts my husband has about their existance. I'll let you know how it goes . . .