Monday, February 22, 2010

The Show Must Go On!

I just received word that I will be participating in the 16th Annual Decoy Show in Santa Rosa, California. I am very pleased with this development alone, but to add to the good news, my dad will be able to come out this year to share my table. This show will be the first decoy show my father and I have attended together since I was a child, and I now have the blessing to bring him and my family too. As my kids get older, I find myself doing a lot of the same activities with my them that my parents did with me. I find my parenting habits tend to follow what I am familiar with from my upbringing , especially the things that worked pretty well when my folks did them.

So early Saturday morning we will all load up and head out to the show. I am sure my kids will have the same affinity towards the endless rows of old birds that I had, which was very little, but I am also sure the excitement of the event enjoyed as a family will linger. I can recall decoys floating in shiny galvanized tubs, a kids decoy carving booth, and the treats we got after the show if we were good. I can also remember not wanting to go anymore as I got into my teens, then off to college and gone. As a grown man, that makes me a little sad, which is why this upcoming show is an important event for me. I get to share the fun and excitement of the show once again with my dad, with my own family and with a whole new appreciation. Decoys for me and the old man, the hot dogs and treats for the kids, and the circle is unbroken. I think that circle of life hints at what the decoys and the shows are to me: symbolic but tangible representations of my history, my family's history and the history of the communities in which we have lived...brought together and retold, year of after year. I am looking forward to sharing my decoys with everyone in the community and learning from the stories that will be told about all the decoys, about all the different carvers, and about the people who kept and passed on the birds and the places they have lived. And this year and at this show, one of those people, telling one of those stories will be my dad and that makes me very happy.



1 comment:

  1. Mr. Decoy Enthusiast! Check out this upcoming G&S decoy auction online at Artfact! This auction is full of great decoys as well as some very hard to find decoys. For example, a Lee Dudley Canada Goose, only one of two with its original head! Once again, check it out and tell your fellow Decoy enthusiasts about it!

    http://www.artfact.com/catalog/searchLots.cfm?scp=c&catalogRef=0PYEUHO43W&utm_source=gsdecoy&utm_medium=socmedia&utm_campaign=10media

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