Image Source: Funny birds by @usagigallardo015 :
@usagigallardo015/feathered-friends-smap-round-101?referral=wrestlingdesires
This post is in response to Let Our Picture Tell Your Story by @wrestlingdesires
I am the child of older parents. My parents were in their mid-thirties when I was born. They were also the children of older parents (at least for that generation). For this reason, many of my parents and grandparents friends were quite senior to me - generally in their 60s and 70s.
One such pair were my paternal grandparents' best friends - Daniel and Mary Haynes.
Image Source: Scanned image from author's collection of photos. Photo likely originally taken by author's grandmother - Esther Mary Kendall.
Daniel and Mary became friends with my grandparents in the same way many people become friends today - through their children. Daniel and Mary's children were good friends of my dad and aunt. The two families vacationed together many times. The "men" took hunting trips to Canada and the full families took summer vacations to the area around Torch Lake in northern Michigan. While not labeled as such, based on the background in the photo, I believe that is where this photo was taken.
While the children didn't stay close friends as adults, Daniel and Mary remained close with my grandparents - Paul and Esther. That is how I came to know Daniel and Mary. Daniel and Mary lived on "crick" road (the Indiana Hoosier twang pronunciation of creek) which wasn't actually the name of the road on any map but it is what everyone who lived in the area knew the road as. When I would stay with grandma while dad was at work and mom was running errands or working, we would often go to visit Mary - and often Daniel was around.
Daniel always had interesting things around their homestead - but what fascinated me the most were his animals.
One day, Daniel had a mother duck and her baby ducklings in a pen. The momma duck had come "ashore" - aka up the bank from the creek that ran right by their house. Daniel noticed she was hurt and decided to try to nurse her back to health. Not long after, while making recovery from her wing injury, she laid eggs. Daniel realized he would be quickly overrun with baby ducks so he began asking friends if they wanted babies once they hatched.
I befriended momma duck. She ate her grain and grubs from my hand on our visits and I begged my dad to let me have a few of the babies when they were hatched. Dad agreed as long as I was willing to take care of them. While we waited for the ducklings to get old enough to leave their momma's care, dad and I worked in the evenings to fashion a little spot for the ducklings in our back yard.
The ducklings came to live with us and I trekked out to their little house several times a day. I fed and watered them, let them out so they could run around and play - and I could play with them, and cleaned up their living space. We had a
small kiddie pool that was also right there by their living space. They got in their and played and splashed in the water.
About 10 days into this little adventure, somehow the door to their pen was left open. It is a source of great disagreement in our family as to whether I left the door open or if someone else snuck out there and opened the door on purpose.
My little heart was crushed and I was nearly inconsolable.
Until the next day. My grandma said that Daniel thought I needed to come by their house because three little ducklings (the same number I had had at my house) had made their way back to his house via the creek. (Our home was not on the creek like Daniel's but it was a very, very easy little walk to get to the creek from the yard where the ducks were.)
Grandma took me to Daniel and Mary's - and those were my ducklings! They had gone back to their home and their momma. Daniel said that if they wanted to be there that badly they would probably just need to stay because they'd constantly run away.
So, I got my duckling fix in during our visits rather than in my backyard. I watched them grow for several more weeks before momma and babies all headed out down the creek to a new place.
I've always loved ducks every since and am fascinated by their grace and beauty.