My first experience with the image of a duck came during toilet training. My mother, on the advice of a friend, purchased a yellow plastic duck seat to place appropriately. The duck had a head, tail and a bounce seat, as I recall. I loved the bill and eyes that smiled. Bouncing worked the magic.
"Do you have to go to the duck?" became the training call to action.
We took it in the car when visiting friends. Everywhere I turned, I found my duck. Close buddies we became.
The next duck experience happened at a pond where my parents spent their summers. I loved the variety of ducks and followed them into bushes. One day, I discovered a nest and an egg. I had watched duck mothers sitting on eggs so decided to do that for a half hour a day.
I sat on the egg for days.
When I came home my mother would ask how I'd spent the day.
"I sat on a duck egg," my response.
She accepted my imaginative thinking, sighed and rolled her eyes.
One day I sat too hard and realized why the mother had abandoned the egg. With the rotten egg clinging to my clothing, my mother now believed my duck egg story. I never had to wear white again.
After graduating as a U.S.C. Trojan, I became a duck by marriage to a University of Oregon Duck. More duck-related activities followed when I worked for the University of Oregon Athletic Department tutoring Duck players.
Now I revel in all Oregon Duck activities by teaching writing classes and mentoring student athletes. I post Oregon activities on my Facebook page, O POSITIVE DUCKS.
I am so inDuckted, the idea of "Go to the Duck" stimulates excitement and fun.
