Disco Duck

Several years ago, we started a tradition of a white elephant gift. I had been cleaning out our garage, futilely attempt to downsize my stuff, and I found something that I have carried with me everywhere for well over thirty years.

In approximately 1977, I was given a build-it-yourself marionette of disco duck. It moved across town with us, it moved to the Twin Cities with me, it moved to Remsen with me, and then back to Decorah. As I looked at it, I realized the ultimate white elephant gift.

My family was absolutely amazed that I still had this fuzzy duck and all the pieces. It was decided that this would be the only white elephant gift that could be re-used, but only if a step of the instructions was done. My sister Tanya got it the first year. Somehow or another, I managed to get it back the second year. I had to cut the fur to out. It really sheds now. My sister got it back the third, and did the next step. Each year, my brother Mark would laugh and laugh at us when we got it.

I knew for sure that I did NOT want to get Disco Duck this year. The next step is to glue the fur onto the Styrofoam balls. It just sounded messy.

Part of the rules of the re-gifting is that everything needs to go with the duck. Including the box. We are all very cautious about what sized box we picked. There was one box this year, however, that we knew it couldn’t possibly be. It was a long narrow tube about 8” in diameter. My brother gleefully picked that one.

Guess what was inside.

The box was in there, flattened and rolled. The Styrofoam balls were all in there. The ball that is the body is a 7” diameter ball, so it just fit inside the tube. My brother’s expressions were wonderful. As my lovely wife put it…