Since you asked...here is my story of the "Jackalope".
In the summer of 1981, between college graduation and graduate school, I got a job as a counselor on a Teen Tour. This Teen Tour was an 8 week trip, mostly living off of buses and cooking / camping at many of the cities and national parks in the Western US. I had to supervise 8 campers and got a free, all expenses paid trip of the Western US, along with $25 a week for my trouble. I had the time of my life, and it was a great thing to do before facing "reality".
I ended up on a tour which had about 60 15 year old boys and girls. The boys were OK. The girls were somewhat spoiled 15 year olds, which surprised me since this was a camping trip and anything but luxurious. The female counselors had a lot of trouble keeping these girls in line. They complained about everything, and always tried to one-up each other.
One of the activities, a few weeks into the trip, was a 5 mile hike in the Badlands. The kids self-selected in groups of 8 and counselors were assigned to lead each group. One of the female counselors was stuck with 8 of the most annoying girls, and begged me to take her place. She said that the girls might be less of a PITA if they had a male counselor. Counselors were given walkie-talkies (this was way before cell phones) and we all set out on the hike.
One of the girls asked me about the rabbit with horns that she saw displayed in many of the gift shops out west. If you have ever been out west, you must have seen this ubiquitous taxidermy creation. The Jackalope is a stuffed western jack rabbit (either full body or just the head) with an antelope's antlers grafted onto the head. Totally made up, but these girls didn't know that. I told the girls that these Jackalopes are very real and very dangerous! But, not to worry, they were also rare.
About two miles into the hike, the complaining started. "How much more do we have to hike? I'm tired! Can we turn back? What's for dinner? I'm hungry! Isn't Steph (their counselor) a B-tch!" I let this go on for a while and inspiration struck. I squelched the walkie-talkie and pretended to answer it. "What's up? Are you sure? What should we do? That will keep them safe? OK, got it!"
I then told the girls that the park rangers just called and that someone had just seen a small Jackalope herd . The park had issued a warning. What we needed to do was to quickly get back to the park info building. We also had to keep our hands up in the air and stomp our feet. By stomping our feet, we will make enough noise to keep these Jackalopes away. Snakes were also an enemy of Jackalopes. If we kept out hands in the air and waved them, Jackalopes would think they were snakes and that would also help keep them at bay.
I led them back to the info center stomping our feet and waving our hands in the air. We must have looked pretty ridiculous! When we got back to the center, one of the park rangers came over to me and asked why we were stomping and waving. The girls had gone to the bathroom. When I told him what I had done, he started laughing! He laughed so hard tears were coming out of his eyes and he couldn't catch his breath. Soon, it was time for us to leave and someone fetched the girls out of the bathroom. I saw the ranger I had told about the jackalopes still laughing, but now with a group of fellow rangers. They all smiled and waved to us as we left.
For the rest of the summer, the girls would tell people about their jackalope scare and how I saved them. I don't think anyone told them the truth, and so far as I know they went home thinking Jackalopes were real. They also never gave me any more grief for the rest of the summer.
That is how my Jackalope handle came about. My avatar is a picture of Rufus, our very old guinea pig. He is much loved by my two daughters (22 and 20).
he was the best! I have many of his movies!
