Whale Time: Origin

Origin

It all started with a stuffed killer whale in a science museum in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota...

That's the line I've had attached to this Whale Time site in its various incarnations over the past several years. Recently I found a draft of the origin of Whale Time from a college writing class taken in high school during the spring of 1988. The kid who wrote it thought he was all that as a writer, but his future self is here to say he was shit. But it'll do for now.

Finally, the Real Origin
as described by an overdramatic teen in 1988

It's amazing how sometimes the most minute event can become significant in the way it appears in history. In my recent past, a museum, a stuffed animal, and an old cliché served as the pieces to a puzzle which has oddly become quite intricate.

[Oh, God, help me. I can barely read it, but I'm convincing myself that this is good for me. It continues... —G. Sax]

It was sometime during the first two months of 1986 when the genesis of a name for a rebellious teen group first appeared. A Saturday not unlike any other Saturday was "the day of reckoning" as it could now be called.

A group of high school kids (including myself) had gone downtown [St. Paul] to pick up our favorite comic books and bum around town to look for girls and merchandise.

We ate pizza at Sbarro's fast food eatery in Town Square, shopped at Galtier Plaza in Lowertown, and visited some of our other hideawasy of St. Paul's capital city. To hold true to tradition, we ended off our full day of downtown festivalling at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

As usual, our shabby group of adventurers spread throughout the museum to search for the cards that served as a receipt and proof that one paid to get into the museum portion of the building.

With no thoughts of getting caught, we gambled to see the special exhibits by digging in the garbage for the museum cards. Eventually, the six of us each had a card and we proceeded to move through the building, looking at the new exhibits along the way.

After about an hour, we grew tired of revisiting familiar scientific setups and went back downstairs into the lobby. We lounged for a while as a group, and then split up to do different things. Some went next door to the lobby of the high-rise apartment complex; others went back into the museum; Laci and I went into the gift shop known as the "Explore Store."

We were feeling frisky and wanted something that closely resembled a football. We found a hand-sized killer whale.

Excited with our find, we went into the huge lobby and began playing catch with the small whale. We then began a new game that involved kicking the whale back and forth. Our little animal was a godsend to a couple of boys who were tired of the dull routine they'd made an entire Saturday.

We continued our game until disaster struck. As quickly as the fun began, it ended. Laci booted the whale as hard as he could (the point to our game) and we watched it go up...and up...Until!

The whale was caught. In this lobby, there was an old-fashioned plane that hung from the ceiling. The whale had been lodged behind the wing of the antique, and there was nothing we could do.

We tried desperately to knock it down with our winter garments, but to no avail.

To be continued...