"Big Girl School"

Mia officially started "Big Girl School" on Tuesday. She is attending Creative Kids Preschool in Hutto and she just loves it! She is terribly impressed with herself - LOL. The staff there is so kind and welcoming -- they were ready to help soothe Mia if she was nervous about me leaving, etc., but now they know that that isn't a problem - Mia was ready for me to go as soon as she got there. She is a big girl now, you know. Today she told me that she didn't have time to kiss me goodbye because she had to work on her "project". What a little stinker! Here is a picture of her and her new teacher, Ms. Donna and a picture of her on one of the "famous" Hutto Hippos.

A bit of history: According to local legend, it was in 1915 that a circus train stopped in Hutto Texas at the depot to take on passengers, pick up and deliver mail and possibly take on water and fuel for the steam locomotive. The circus train workers also would have taken this opportunity to care for their animals. At some point during this historic layover, a hippopotamus got out of the railcar and made its way to the nearby Cottonwood Creek which is next to the rail line. This caused much consternation for the circus workers. Local farmers and merchants watched the commotion in amusement and with interest as unsuccessful efforts were made to extricate the hippopotamus from the muddy waters of Cottonwood Creek. It is said that the Depot Agent, who at that time would have been Hal Farley, Jr., telegraphed the communities of Taylor and Round Rock that were eight miles to the east and west of Hutto to the effect of: “STOP TRAINS, HIPPO LOOSE IN HUTTO”. After much effort the hippo was prodded from the mud and water that resembled its natural habitat and was reloaded back onto the train car. Soon afterward the Hutto School adopted the hippopotamus as its mascot and as early as 1923 the hippo appeared on official Hutto High School graduation announcements.

There are several alternate stories about the beginnings of the unique Hutto mascot. According to one, the big Swedish and German boys of Hutto were playing their smaller foes in football, and the visiting coach exclaimed “We can’t beat those boys, they’re big as hippos!” Another story, also based on gridiron lore, is that the Hutto football team in the early twenties had no real jerseys and used feed sacks as their uniforms. The opposing coach allegedly said that the football team looked like a bunch of hippos in their makeshift outfits.