It’s a point of honor to be the first to report that the pinkletinks are awake and peeping.
One late winter, many, many years ago, the Gazette heard from Michael Wild that he had heard a pinkletink peeping a whole couple of weeks earlier than usual. It was a real record breaker. If I remember correctly, it was front page news! The nights were still very chilly. Friday evening, Michael’s very patient partner Marsha sat down by the fire to peruse the recent edition of the Gazette. There on the front page was the proclamation that Michael and a pinkletink had broken all previous records. She being the much more rational of the two inquired if he was sure about all of this. When and where was he when this insomniac frog made its presence known? Turns out that he was standing in the open doorway with an armload of firewood when he heard its peep ever so faintly.
Marsha folded the paper, set it on the table, stood up and walked over to the thermostat which was turned down so that the woodstove could do its job unassisted. She rotated the dial on the thermostat just slightly to the point that it made that click that we are all familiar with. The previously inactive furnace beneath the floor responded with a very faint duet of squeaks as it fired up. Squeaks that sounded remarkably like a pinkletink’s peeps.
I would have loved to see the look on Michael’s face at that moment. It’s easy to imagine. He told me that Marsha was very polite about it. She merely reminded him that perhaps the furnace needed looking after since it began squeaking last Monday.
Correctly or not, that’s the way I like to remember it anyway.
The next Chappy Community Center potluck is on Wednesday, March 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. Please bring a dish to serve eight to share with your neighbors.
This article appears in March 13, 2026.