Toivo 'Toy' Sivola, 84, born Groundhog Day, 2/2 of '22; "Keeper of the Burrow" for the Milwaukee Groundhog Club
Shrike!
By JESSE GARZA
July 1, 2006
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=451055
Toivo 'Toy' Sivola
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As the "Keeper of the Burrow" for the Milwaukee Groundhog Club,
Toivo "Toy" Sivola spent his birthdays at the Milwaukee County
Zoo officiating over such dignitaries as "the Cloud Maker," "the
Assayer of the Sun" and "the Chief Eye Rubber."
The Cloud Maker pushed for an early spring; the Assayer
determined whether the groundhog saw its shadow; and the Eye
Rubber cleared the animal's eyes to make sure it could see.
And at the Groundhog Club dinner that followed, Sivola - whom
folks called Toy because no one could pronounce his name -
reported on celebrity rodents with monikers like Chucky, Jimmy
and Punxsutawney Phil.
"And Woodys," his wife, Loretta Sivola, recalled.
"They had a whole lot of Woodys."
Funeral services were held Saturday for Sivola, who, aside from
his association with the Groundhog Club, was a proud veteran of
World War II, a master carpenter and a fairly decent banjo player.
But he really wasn't that great of a singer.
"He couldn't carry a tune, but he was a good banjo player,"
Loretta Sivola said of her husband, who died Wednesday after a
long illness at age 84.
He was born Feb. 2, 1922 - Groundhog Day, 2/2 of '22 - in Phelps
to Mary, a homemaker, and Emil, a sawmill worker.
After graduating from Phelps High School he moved to Milwaukee,
working as a houseman at the Schroeder Hotel before being drafted
into the U.S. Army in 1942.
He served in Europe with the 14th Armored Division and met
Loretta on a blind double date shortly after he and an Army buddy
were discharged.
"They were looking for women," Loretta Sivola said.
Began apprenticeship
Her future husband then entered a carpenter apprenticeship in
Milwaukee, which he completed in 1950, the same year he married
Loretta.
He then spent the next half century or so working for contractors
or himself.
"I'm not sure when he retired," his wife said. "I guess when he
couldn't work anymore."
Sivola and a group of his pals formed a polka band, playing at
weddings and at gatherings for Local 264 of the Carpenters Union,
his wife said.
"They didn't really have a name - they just played together," his
wife said. "He didn't dance with me, though.
"He was a musician, but he couldn't dance."
But her husband knew how to have fun. So in the late 1970s when
he heard about a local club whose members were all born on
Groundhog Day, he just had to join.
"I only met up with him once a year, but he had a delightful
sense of humor," said current Keeper of the Burrow Richard
Perschon, who explained the duties of his office.
"The Keeper of the Burrow is charged with gathering the members
together for the zoo celebration and the dinner," he said. "After
(Sivola) relinquished the office, he remained our Grand Patriarch
for the last couple of years."
When Sivola ascended to the Keeper position in 1987, he inherited
a stuffed groundhog named Beverly. Every Groundhog Day he would
don a tuxedo and top hat when presiding over the festivities at
the zoo, and he reveled in entertaining the busloads of
schoolchildren in attendance.
At one celebration, an exceptionally rambunctious groundhog
scooted into the bushes.
"The news media and everyone was in the bushes," Loretta Sivola
recalled. "They finally found him, but everybody was full of snow."
Beside his Groundhog Club antics, Sivola and his wife were
actively involved with the Finnish American Society, the Holiday
Folk Fair and, every year, attended the national reunion of the
14th Armored Division.
"I had a wonderful husband," Loretta Sivola said. "And I had a
wonderful life with him."