Yesterday was a thirteen-hour juggernaut, at the end of which it didn’t even occur to me to turn on my computer and post. But there is something that has captured the attention of the magpie: pink plastic lawn flamingos.
Where do they come from?
I mean, I get that, at this point, they are largely kitschy or ironic, or both. But surely they weren’t, to begin with. Surely there was some origin point at which someones, somewhere, thought that real flamingos on lawns was a really awesome thing, and that having pretend flamingos on lawns would be a cool second-best?
Or something?
I haven’t had a chance to go poking around into the origin story of pink flamingos (although I think I have to, at some point, when students aren’t panicking about midterms, and I’m caught up on grading, and my conference presentation is written, and and and), but meanwhile, maybe someone has some inside knowledge that will shed light on this pressing question?
Inquiring magpies want to know.
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3 comments:
When I was a kid, I originally thought lawn flamingos were decoys meant to lure flamingos to your lawn. Yes... I have lived in Canada all my life, where there are approximately zero flamingos anywhere in the country... but in my defense, my father is a hunter.. he had duck decoys, so what else could those stupid plastic things be? And I did think those people who had them on their lawn were stupid, because everyone knew there were no flamingos in Canada.
Oh, my gosh, what a good question, and what a good answer Wanderingcat has.
My favorite pink flamingo display included 8 of them, all wearing santa hats and harnesses and pulling a tiny sleigh. I've always wanted to recreate that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Featherstone_(artist)
I want a movie made based on this guy and his wife!
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