It’s the Toddler Strut. He held one arm close to his body while the other was swinging broadly across in front of him as his feet took determined staccato steps to his destination. Grandson Lincoln was on the move toward his sweet crunchy target, graham crackers.
“Quacker! Quacker! Quacker!”
As he asked for crackers in his two-toned singsong, I remembered where I had seen that exact same toddler strut before.
It was 1980-something and my daughter Sara (Lincoln’s Mom) was chasing down some quackers of her own.
We were visiting my parents in Tennessee and taking a stroll around the local duckpond, when she decided to get up close and personal with her new feathered friends.
They scattered. She strutted after in pursuit and was quite disappointed that none seemed to want to play. Hands on her hips, she protested in her questioning “Quack, quack??”
Fast forward to 1990. Older and evidently much wiser Sara took food for the fowl this time to entice them to draw nigh. And so they did. So much so that she had to retreat to the nearby gazebo for protection from pecking.
A newspaper reporter on location to cover who knows what witnessed the whole event, and asked us if Sara might reenact it for his photographer to shoot. After the quackers settled down a bit, he snapped a few photos of Sara tossing bread to the grateful gaggle. That’s how my not yet double-digit daughter became a celebrity!
Lincoln’s five now. It won’t be long before his toddling little sister Alina will be showing off her own strut and we’ll be reminiscing together about these memories all over again.
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When has a family resemblance in body movement, facial expression, or tone of voice reminded you of something from the past? I’d love to support you in capturing the story behind those memories so you can pass it on to those in your family who may not have heard it yet. Let me know in the Comments if you’d like to learn how to get started…
JOYfully jotting,
Katie
Family PhotoStory Organizer
Mini-Stories Writing Coach
Your Legacy of Memories Mentor
Capturing Moments That Matter…
Energizing & Connecting Families for Generations!