They were yelling at Margaret Anderson Kelliher again shortly before noon on Wednesday, just like people were screaming at her as midnight approached on Monday.

The words were different, though, and so were the expressions on the faces.

On Monday, the shouters ranged from perturbed to angry and they hollered words such as: “Madame Speaker, a point of parliamentary inquiry,” and “Madame Speaker, privilege of the House,” and — at the end — “Shame on you!”

On Wednesday, the faces were smiling and the words were these: “I’m Zippy the zebra, I’m Zippy the zebra, I’m Zippy the zebra, who lives in the zoo.”

What a difference 58 hours can make.

Monday was the end of Kelliher’s first session as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and the rural Mankato native was desperately trying to move the final budget bills to a vote in the last couple of minutes prior to the midnight adjournment deadline.

Republicans were upset by some of the parliamentary methods that she and fellow Democrats were using to get the budget bills passed on time, including rarely used tactics for shutting down debate and forcing a final vote.

Wednesday was “Z Day” in Mrs. Romas’ kindergarten class at Roosevelt Elementary School.

A welcome homecoming

Kelliher’s tours of two of her former schools — Roosevelt and West High School — were the finale of a day-long breather she took in the Mankato area after the exhausting final weeks, the stressful final days and the rancorous final minutes of the legislative session.

She spent Tuesday afternoon and evening at her cabin on Lake Jefferson, napping a lot, eating supper at Whiskey River in St. Peter and taking delivery of the new pontoon boat she and her husband had just purchased. They took the boat out on the lake despite that it was raining.

“It beats being in the Legislature right now,” Kelliher said.

So did the nostalgic visits to her former schools.

It started at West as Rod Urtel directed the choir in a beautiful rendition of The Mankato West Hymn. Kelliher made a point to give a special greeting to the altos.

“Rod let me be in the choir. I wasn’t good in the choir. They sort of tolerated me being in the choir.”