Those Lucky Ducks

Last weekend Anthony had a Civil War Re-Enactment in Michigan City, MS. 7 hours away. On Thursday and Friday the battles weren't open to the public so we had to find something to do. Since we had hotel reservations in Germantown, we planned to spend the day seeing the sites in Memphis. (We found, though, that there aren't too many sites to see in Memphis...). We didn't go to Graceland because the tickets were so expensive. Thirty dollars each expensive. And you can't even go upstairs. And quite frankly, we grew up in 70's houses with shag carpet and olive green and harvest gold potties. I mean fixtures. It would have cost 90 dollars for us to walk through the downstairs of his home. That just doesn't seem like good economics to me.

We (I) had one destination in Memphis that I wanted to go to. And it was free. I love free. As soon as I knew we were gonna be in West Tennessee I had visions of ducks. Peabody Ducks. We got to the Peabody Hotel at 10:30 a.m. to get a good seat, a "bird's eye view" you might say... (Sorry, had to throw that in there). And we did. We got there in time to get good spots about halfway between the elevator and the beautiful fountain the ducks spend their days in.

Before the ducks make their trek to the marble fountain, the "Duckmaster" tells a little history of how this particular event came about.

"In 1933, Frank Schutt, the hotel's general manager at the time, and a few hunting companions returned to the hotel after a duck hunting trip. They had used live duck decoys (a practice that is no longer legal) and brought these tame ducks back with them. After an unknown number of rounds of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey, they decided it would be a funny prank to release their live ducks in the hotel's fountain before retiring for the night. It proved to be such a hit with hotel guests, the ducks became a permanent feature." Read more: How to Visit the Peabody Duck March in Memphis eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4499351_visit-peabody-duck-march-memphis.html#ixzz15YoDDTZB

So, it appears that a bunch of drunk duck hunters thought it would be funny to put live ducks in the fountain. The next morning when they woke up the ducks were still there. Along with a very large crowd. As any good business owner knows, crowds are great. So the ducks stayed. And 77 years later the crowds are still there, too.

The first thing they did was roll out the red carpet.

The ducks live on the roof of The Peabody. Every day at 11 a.m., the duckmaster leads the highly trained ducks from their home on the roof, onto the elevator, down to the lobby, across the red carpet, and into their nice, marble fountain.

I was completely ready to get some pictures of these ducks. I had Alex armed with the video camera and I was sitting down on the floor in the kids area so that I could get good, close up pictures. The music started playing, the elevator doors opened, and these ducks sprinted to the fountain. I got one picture. Of their back side. They were moving so fast my camera didn't have time to focus. Who knew they would be running? Since then, I have watched many videos on YouTube and in not one other video were the ducks running. Only when we're there and I have my camera ready. So, here's a picture of their back sides. That's all I got.

The Peabody Hotel is absolutely beautiful. I wonder what happened to the craftsmanship that our country experienced in those earlier years? Everyone took such pride in their work and the hotels were truly showplaces.

Now, when I see ducks inside a beautiful building, swimming in a beautiful fountain, walking across beautiful floors I can't help but wonder about the poop. Cuz I know about duck poop. Which is a lot like chicken poop but bigger. And they do poop. Wherever they feel like it. All these people sitting at tables right around the fountain don't appear to be worried about the duck poop. Surely. Surely I'm not the only one. The ducks cannot be that highly trained. Can you imagine how nasty the water is in that fountain? There are five ducks in it for six hours a day and they can't get out cuz their wings have been clipped. Ewww...

If their wings hadn't been clipped they would be flying all over this lobby and there would be duck poop EVERYWHERE.

Which I am pretty sure is why the tiles on the fountain floor are all different colors. Different colored tiles can hide lots of different colored things.

This is the duck palace on the roof of The Peabody. They have a miniature hotel to sleep in and another fountain to play in. In reading about The Peabody Ducks, I learned that they only work for three months then they are retired to a farm where they spend the rest of their lives in luxury.

Since I can't figure out how to get our YouTube videos on here, I think you can click on this link and it will take you to our video to watch. It's really short but you have to watch all the way to the end so you can hear Alex's comment. She's a very patient girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18zbV_bmiXk