A Night Out

I look forward to Summer Saturday Evenings at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum all year.

The Museum closes at 5:00 PM but during July and August, it stays open until 10:00 PM and takes on a magical – almost forbidden - quality as you walk the grounds at dusk and then in the dark.

Not only do the docents man stations that are different from those you see during the day – you can peer through telescopes, analyze saguaro “stew” under a microscope, look for scorpions with a blacklight, find animals by looking for their eye shine – you also have a chance to see animals moving around that lay low when the sun is up.

I swear I thought the beavers were stuffed until I saw them swimming one evening – who knew they could actually move around?

Over the last few years, Museum staff has been enhancing the evening experience by adding programs based on a theme. June 23 was “Backyard Camping and Summer Reading Night”. I was pretty excited about attending since I knew the Pima County Public Libraries were involved. Philip hurried home from Saguaro National Park so that we could get there just before the activities got started.

Peggy Larson

I knew all about Peggy Larson, museum librarian/archivist, author of several books including Arizona Sonora Desert Museum: A Scrapbook, married to Merv Larson who was an early Museum employee, eventual director and visionary extraordinaire….but had never had the privilege of meeting her until last night. She was scheduled to talk a little about the Museum, then show a video. We made our way to the Warden Oasis Theater, thinking it would be nice to sit inside while it cooled off (the temperature was still 103 degrees when we arrived.)

Peggy calls herself the oldest living employee since her “career” at the Museum started in 1953 when she and Merv moved onto the grounds right after the grand opening. This initial six-month stint has led to a long-term association with the institution. When the staff wanted to put together a video about the Museum’s history in preparation for its 60^th anniversary coming up Labor Day 2012, they turned to Peggy for help. The video we saw last night covers the first 30 years, and she is hard at work completing one that covers the second 30 years.

I enjoyed Peggy’s stories and hope that they are being recorded for posterity, especially the little known facts: the dinners she prepared for Bill Carr every night, the ghostwriting she did as George L. (Leo) Mountain Lion, the thought process behind the creation of the first naturalistic cages and invisifence, and the personalities of the founders and first employees.

Carol, Prancer and a young reader

Philip and I then went to the Baldwin Education Building. Native Seed Search and the Pima County Public Library’s Seed Library both had information tables – we came away with a seed catalog and a seed ball to plant in the yard. A librarian was reading desert stories to a small group of children and adults in one of the classrooms – we joined in singing Itsy Bitsy Spider – before moving on to see “Read to a Dog”.

Carol Madeheim, former Museum employee, had brought her therapy dog, Prancer, to listen while children read aloud. I have to admit I was taken aback at first since I was expecting to see a Golden Retriever or a dog of similar size –not a Chihuahua – but his little face was so expressive that it made me laugh. Such a cutie! There was a line of children waiting their turn and I’m sure Prancer and Carol were busy all night.

REI had a table in the Desert Garden – I still think of it as the Sunset Magazine Demonstration Garden from our very first visit to the Museum 25 years ago – and I picked up their version of the Summer Reading Program passport. Their goal is to get families outside and it features puzzles, games, stickers and places to record your observations.

An added bonus: There is a magnificent exhibit in the Gallery by wildlife artist Tell Hicks and he was there, working on a painting. It’s amazing to see his technique and the detail that goes into each one.

And an extra added bonus: as we were walking toward the entrance, Philip and I saw a sand snake by the Mammoth Exhibit.

The Museum wasn’t as crowded as I have seen it in the past.  There were probably a couple of reasons for that: very little advertising (I didn’t see anything in the paper and the libraries weren’t really pushing it, even though kids with an Adventure Pass coupon could have gotten in for free), the heat (it has been over 100 degrees for more than a week and not been cooling down at night), and the Museum was closed last Saturday unexpectedly due to a lightening strike that took out one of the transformers. When you lose momentum, it sometimes takes a while to get it back.

Next week’s theme: Desert Storms and Music