Like every community everywhere, the town I call home, Eston, has several characteristics which make it unique.
One of the most notable is the fact that we race gophers.
For 25 years gopher races have been a feature of our town’s July 1st celebrations. June 30th, a draw is held from entries received to determine the names of the gophers who will run on July 1 and the names of their owners.
The winners in the heats go into the final race of the day, with the owner of the winning gopher in the final race taking home prize money.
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The Ron Butterly Memorial Race, open only to Lions Club members, has been added as a feature of the Gopher Days, held on June 30th.
This year, gophers were entered from across the province, from such points as Harris and Piapot, Climax and Gravebourg. The entry from Piapot, named Chief Piapot, captured the crowd’s imagination early on.
It seems that, lacking a ride, Chief Piapot set out on foot for Eston.
Now, for those who don’t know, Piapot is more than 300 kilometres from Eston, a formidable distance for even the most determined gopher to cover on foot.
Halfway to his destination, he got
a ride with a truck driver. Unfortunately, being a gopher, Chief Piapot doesn’t have much knowledge of geography and the trucker, who didn’t understand much gopher talk, thought he said he was going to Estevan instead of Eston. Chief Piapot ended up miles (and even more kilometres) out of his way. By the time he reached Eston, his poor little feet were in terrible shape.
It was no surprise to anyone, least of all to Chief Piapot, that the oddsmakers listed him as the longshot at 32-1.
There was a lot of sympathy for poor Chief Piapot, who was given the number one slot for the race. With just 15 minutes to race time, a local slipped Chief Piapot some jalapeno jelly. He revived, so much so that the oddsmakers dropped him from 32-1 to 3-1 minutes before the race was to begin. When the bell sounded, all eyes were on slot number one.
Nothing.
Had Chief Piapot gone to sleep? Were his feet too sore to race?
None of the above.
Like the hare in the Aesop fable, Chief Piapot was overconfident in his speed and the effects of jalapeno jelly. He took his time coming out of the slot, he spent too much time looking at his fans, and in the end he failed to win, place or show.
At least, that’s how they tell the story in Eston.
