When Betsy was great with Jackson, Tom and Betsy took a
trip to North Carolina. They were in
baby-naming mode. Betsy said, “if it’s a
boy we could call him Raleigh.”
Tom replied “I like Duck or Chapel Hill better.”
For the rest of the pregnancy they referred to the baby as Duck; so did Ox and I.
Jackson/Duck turned nine in November. In early October I remembered a favorite present from my childhood – a top-hatted glass duck on tin legs that dipped its beak, over and over, into a glass of water. As long as it could reach its water the duck (really a heat engine) was a perpetual motion machine. Its bottom glass bulb was half filled with colored liquid and it had a long neck that went up to a smaller self-contained glass bulb that had a hat, a beak and an absorbent felt coating. The duck was too wonderful to have gone out of production.
Sure enough, a Google search on “bobbing duck” revealed that these were still available, although their tin legs had become plastic in the 50 years since I had mine. I ordered the cheapest duck on Amazon. I discovered only after I had made the fatal buy click that the duck was to be shipped from China and would arrive five days after Jackson’s birthday. I told Ox.
Tom replied “I like Duck or Chapel Hill better.”
For the rest of the pregnancy they referred to the baby as Duck; so did Ox and I.
Jackson/Duck turned nine in November. In early October I remembered a favorite present from my childhood – a top-hatted glass duck on tin legs that dipped its beak, over and over, into a glass of water. As long as it could reach its water the duck (really a heat engine) was a perpetual motion machine. Its bottom glass bulb was half filled with colored liquid and it had a long neck that went up to a smaller self-contained glass bulb that had a hat, a beak and an absorbent felt coating. The duck was too wonderful to have gone out of production.
Sure enough, a Google search on “bobbing duck” revealed that these were still available, although their tin legs had become plastic in the 50 years since I had mine. I ordered the cheapest duck on Amazon. I discovered only after I had made the fatal buy click that the duck was to be shipped from China and would arrive five days after Jackson’s birthday. I told Ox.
Ox went on-line and found two-for-the-price-of-one ducks
that would arrive within the week of ordering.
He gave me them as an early Christmas present.
I gave one to Jackson for his birthday and set up the
other at home on the mantle piece. I don’t
know if Jackson’s duck is bobbing yet, but mine is insatiable. We moved the duck from the mantle-piece to
the kitchen counter with concern for electronic devices under the mantle
piece. The duck sits on the kitchen
counter and bobs. I keep forgetting that
he’s there until his motion hits the corner of my eye.
What a duck! What
a faithful duck! What an indefatigable duck! What an example of the virtue of
persistence! The duck bobs day and
night. All he needs is a little water to
wet his whistle. Wow, what a duck!
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