{"id":41730,"date":"2013-07-31T00:09:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T07:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=41730"},"modified":"2013-07-31T00:09:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T07:09:09","slug":"ducklings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/41730","title":{"rendered":"ducklings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tDo you remember this lovely little book?<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Judgesurreal777<\/p><\/div>\n

Robert McCloskey published Make Way for Ducklings<\/i><\/a> in 1941, inspired by the days he spent feeding ducks at Boston’s Public Garden as an art student in the early 1930s. Later, while illustrating the book, he brought six ducklings home to share his studio apartment in New York’s West Village.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Alexey Gomankov via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Can you imagine?<\/p>\n

In the story of Mrs. Mallard and her brood, a kindly Boston police officer named Michael, who once enjoyed feeding peanuts to the Mallards, stops traffic for the web-footed family to cross a busy street.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of Read Me a Story; http:\/\/readmeastorynow.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/make-way-for-ducklings.html<\/p><\/div>\n

The city of Boston erected a bronze statue of\u00a0Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings in the Public Garden where McCloskey’s tale began, and since 1978, the city has hosted an annual Duckling Day parade each spring, in which children and their parents dress as ducks and ducklings.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Schon.com; www.schon.com\/public\/ducklings-boston.php<\/p><\/div>\n

Lest you wonder if the sweet story of “policeman-helps-ducklings” could possibly happen in real life, watch this video and smile:<\/p>\n