My little brother brought home a Duckling!

This is just one of those stories you remember from childhood.  I was the older sibling and I just watched this one from the sidelines.  I lived in a small Wisconsin town.  It was one of those towns that you think about when you think "small town America".  A yearly event in the early Summer was "Ridiculous days".  It was really a few days that all the local business' put out all the unsold wares in their stores.  The local library sold unused books.  Charities set up booths etc.  The things at the stores were discounted by a ton and you really had no idea what would be out on the tables in front of the stores. 

My Uncle would bring my cousin to our house and my grandmother would give her and I a few dollars and we would spend the whole day walking the streets looking at all the tables and looking for the best stuff we could buy with our money.  Which at the time seemed like a fortune to two little girls.  Don't worry for our little girl safety in the town.  It was filled with neighbors, cousins who worked at the stores, Aunts, Uncles and friends of all.  We couldn't walk a few feet without someone greeting us and wishing us a good shopping day.

While on one of our trips we passed a man with cages of kittens and baby ducks.  He was set up between the Catholic church and a ladies clothing store.  We looked and walked on.  After our long and tiring day of shopping we went back to my house.  At my house my little brother sat with a baby duck.  A baby duck!  The Catholic church was just a block from my house and he had gone with my other brother to look around.  The man had sold my brother who was little maybe 7 or 8 a baby duck. Knowing my brother even as a small boy he probably worked up some deal so he could get that baby duck.  We lived in the city.  We couldn't have a DUCK!!!  I didn't say a thing, I looked at it and had fun seeing it's little fuzzy body.  Duck made little quacking noises.  I sort of hoped we would be able to keep it because it was so so cute!

A few hours later my mother came home!!!!!!!!!!!  I had never seen my moms head steam like that!  She was fuming mad.  Not at my brother really but at the man that had sold a little boy a baby duck.  She knew how sweet hearted my brother was and how much he would desire a cute little yellow fuzzy duck but the man should not have sold it to him.  Mom, gathered up the little duck with my brother crying and walked the duck back to the man up the street.  She gave him more than a little piece of her mind and the baby duck was gone.  We were all a little sad :(

But as a side note to the story our neighbors across the street, a few years later had a secret illegal duck they raised.  I would go over and look at it sort of wishing we still had that little yellow duck that came to visit our house for a few hours a few years before.