The other day I scrambled south along our beach to check the ripeness of the currants in the pocket of our southern point. As always, I kept an eye out for anything of interest that might have washed up on the beach.
Spotting a brightly colored object under a rock, I pulled out a small toy, which I recognized almost immediately, despite never having seen one before.
I had found a little yellow rubber duck. This is not the classic rubber ducky made famous by Ernie’s song from our childhood. Rubber duckies have gone crazy since then. This one has a ponytail, pink sun visor, blue bikini bra and Daisy Duke shorts (or are those Daisy Ducks?). She also has a towel draped around her neck. Printed across her tummy is the following: “Alyssa & Samantha.”
Skagway, to the north of Haines, holds a duck derby as part of their annual Independence Day celebration.
For those of you who have not heard of this, a duck derby is a highly entertaining form of lottery. People buy numbered rubber ducks, watch them “race” from point A to point B, and win prizes for the first duck across the finish line, and other distinctions.
The Skagway Chamber of Commerce holds the annual duck derby as a fundraiser for the community. I knew this, because a friend who stayed with us in June goes to Skagway almost every year for the 4th of July, and mentioned it. When I saw the hand-written number on the bottom of the duck, I knew I had an escapee from the Skagway duck derby.
The Skagway Duck Derby Escapee (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
