I was intrigued by a couple of postcards I listed for sale over the holiday weekend, and thought about expressing my opinions about them here. This may happen one day, but what the two cards had in common was that each featured a chicken. And though I grew up in an era of reruns, it is nonetheless true that I have featured chickens in this space on more than one occasion. I feared that my many, many readers (at least half a dozen, when last tallied) might worry, “Is that all the birds he’s got?”
That brought to me my columns dealing with storks and their ancient delivery job. And I heard the echo “Okay, chickens and storks. What else ya got goin’?”
Well, there ARE other birds who have had their jobs on postcards, as I may demonstrate if I get around to it. Swans, for example. As seen above, swans are usually seen as elegant watercraft, frequently bearing wreaths or Valentines or Cupids to a person who needed ‘em. I have not inquired into this phenomenon, but I understand that swans are not you’re most easily trained avian messengers. They just LOOK prettier than carrier pigeons.
And then there are ostriches, whose chief job is to bury their heads in the sand. (I have seen not ONE postcard featuring the equally popular folklore job of swallowing rubber boots, tin cans, and anything else handy. Maybe I just don’t hang out with the right postcards.)
Geese are traditionally foolish, and frequently turn up as grim warnings. (A friend of mine recalls a flock of tame geese on her father’s farm who, during a sudden cold snap, did not seek shelter like the ducks, and were found complaining about being frozen in the pond next morning.)
Geese are also known for stretching their necks to look at thinks, which led to the phrase “to take a gander”, or take a look. The gander is the male goose, and gendering around is given several meanings here. Usually a rooster turns up in this sort of cartoon.
Then there are all the cards featuring pelicans. This is an exceedingly rare example.
Because it does not involve THE POEM. There is one poem about pelicans, though it exists in all sorts of variations.
It is the work of professional humorist and founder of the Tennessee Ornithological Society Dixon Lanier Merritt, who was, it says here on the Interwebs, inspired to write it by being sent a POSTCARD with a picture of a pelican on it. He wrote this in 1910, and lived long enough to see it attributed to just about every other poet on the planet.
Speaking of poems, I had to look up this little ditty on ducks to make sure it actually existed. Yep, this is one of those nursery rhymes your parents may have forgotten to teach you.
Ducks frequently turn up on postcards (frequently in conjunction with chickens, amid fowl rumors of marital infidelity). I’m not altogether certain how I came up with two rather grim, dark duck postcards for this little essay.
But, as long as we’re considering gloomy birds….
Blogsy Babbles 