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. Two year old 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 Maryville, 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 their 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 nine now. His little sister Alina has grown into showing off her own strut and it’s time to 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 multi-generational stories behind those memories to share with family members who may not have heard them yet.
Your children or grandchildren could even create their own KidStory Jottings to share the experience from their perspective and add to your Family Mini-Stories Collection. You KNOW how much they would enjoy seeing themselves in your Family StoryBooks!
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JOYfully jotting,
Katie
Family PhotoStory Curator
Mini-Stories Writing Coach
Your Legacy of Memories Mentor
Capturing Mini-Moments That Matter…
Energizing & Connecting Families for Generations!