Duck March

Hello all.  I thought I would post something tonight a little on the light-hearted side today.  I was at work last night, and one of my co-workers handed me a pen that was labeld "The Peabody".  I instantly thought of another bit of useless/random trivia, and I decided to share it with you. 

Duck March circa 1940

The Duck March tradition began at the Peabody Memphis.  In 1933, the General Manager Frank Schutt, and a friend returned from a weekend hunting trip.  The two gentlemen had a little too much of Jack Daniel's finest and thought it would be funny to place some of their live decoys (it was legal then to use live animals as decoys) in the fountain.  As the legend has it, patrons of the hotel thought it was a nice addition.  So, Schutt decided to use three English call ducks as "guinea pigs" to see if it would interest his guests.  The ducks reception was nothing less than enthusiastic.

Duck palace

Eventually 5 American Mallards would replace the English ducks and the tradtion was born.  In 1940, a bellman named Edward Pembroke, who coincidentally was a former circus trainter, offered to help deliver the ducks to and from the fountain each day.  He was the man who taught them the now famous Peabody Duck March.  Mr. Pembroke was the Duckmaster for 50 years, until his retirement in 1991.  The Duck March is still a tradition at the Peabody, the current Duckmaster is Jason Sensat, who will march the ducks to the fountain everyday at 11AM, and then march them back to the Duck Palace at 5PM. 



Edward Pembroke,
the original Duckmaster



I have to admit, I wish there were more hotels that had tradtions like that.  I mean, how many hotels are still some things the way they did in the 1940's?  I'll try to get back to the world-changing history soon, but I couldn't pass the opportunity to share this with you.

Blue Skies!

Hey Kaitlynn, show this one to Grandma!

9/11

Greetings to you all.  Let me first apologize for the long hiatus I had to take.  This last week was insanity.  This post is going to be more of a rant than a lesson, but I think you will understand why I was upset.  As many of you know, I work 2 jobs.  My main job as a Department Manager for Menards, and as a crew member at A.C.E.S. flight simulation (clearly my favorite). 

Well, over the weekend I was working at A.C.E.S.   What we do there is give people a great experience by running a flight simulation for them.   This past weekend, I had a group of kids who wanted to fly the F/A-18 Hornets.  We got them in and they were on their way to dogfighting history.  As their flight progressed and they flew farther away, one of the pilots came on a city.  He then rammed his aircraft into a building (deliberately) and was screaming "Twin Towers!  Ahhhhh!"  All the while laughing maniacally.  What the hell have we been teaching our kids that a horrific tradgedy like the events of 9/11 would be comical.  Do these children understand that nearly 4000 American men and women were murdered in a completely unprovoked attack on OUR SOIL? 

I was so angry.  I understand that they are there to have fun, but was that really necessary?  So for all of you out there, never forget 9/11!  It was a tragic day in our history not to be forgotten, and certainly not one to find comical.  Sorry about the rant, I'll have a new history lesson soon.

A New Direction...

Hello all.

I have to apologize to my readers for not posting much so far.  I have been so bogged down with work, house projects that I haven't had time to get a new lesson planned for you.  I am going to switch gears this week, and we'll be jumping ahead a bit.  To WWII.  I haven't decided where we'll begin, but maybe Guadalcanal.  So, please bear with me.  I'll get more for you soon.  Thanks!

Blue Skies