The Canonical Penguin: Feeding the Ducks

(Whitney Pond Park Trail)



When you come from a large family, you end up finding simple things to keep the kids amused, lest we break out into fist fights. My parents were no exception and we often did fun things together as a family. This included the watching planes take off and land as I mentioned in a previous post. This also included the tradition of going to feed the ducks.

We would pack up a lunch, get a loaf of cheap bread at the discount store and drive about 20 minutes away to a park in Manhasset, Long Island, called Whitney Pond Park. There were picnic areas, some ball fields, tennis courts and a meandering little stream through it. I can remember my dad telling us that this is where ducks came that were given as Easter presents to kids who didn’t want to take care of them anymore. I don’t know if that is true but there seemed to be an awful lot of different types of ducks there.

We would eat our lunch, walk around the park, play baseball or football or watch other games going on. Occasionally I can remember there being someone’s big family picnic with dozens of parents and kids and grandparents and such. Great for us, this gave us more kids to play with. There were swings and slides and sand boxes and such there too. Sometimes the ice cream man came and after appropriate begging, we got ice cream or ices for a treat.

Finally we would feed the ducks. We would grab a slice of bread and break off little pieces to feed them. They would come from all over, dozens of them looking for a hand out. We would make them follow us as we marched to and fro, had contests to see who could have the most around them at any one time and squealed in excitement and shock when one of them bit a finger or goosed us (yes, pun intended there!) It was an innocent time, a fun time and one I wanted to replicate with our own kids.



(Sorry! No ducks were playing tennis that day!)

CollegeBoy and MillieJupiter got their fill of animal parks and petting zoos and the like. MJ still loves to go and look at goats at the local fairs around by us now. CollegeBoy has a pet woodchuck that he occasionally has to avoid while cutting the grass at his summer job. CollegeBoy has had multiple bee stings. MJ was once bit by a mouse in the wild! Things like this help one to appreciate nature and find joy in the simple things in life.

(These are stories about things that actually happened with plenty of witnesses. It has passed from the apocryphal to canonical in nature. Wiki says of canon – “material that is considered to be "genuine", "something that actually happened", or can be directly referenced as material produced by the original author or creator.”)