My mother has concrete geese. Two of them. She dresses them in clothing ‘appropriate’ to the season. During the spring, one was dressed as a sunflower (petals around its head), and the other was wearing a raincoat. At Christmas, one is dressed as Santa, the other as a reindeer. During hockey playoffs, one is dressed as a Red Wing, the other as a Maple Leaf (it’s a regional thing). The one dressed as a Maple Leaf was wearing sunglasses, so that no one would recognize it, mom informed me. To make matters worse, the geese ‘live’ on the steps of the porch. The porch steps are only about 3 feet wide. I actually have to manoeuver around her silly geese every time I go to her house.
When we bought our house a few months ago, it had a concrete goose on the porch. I threatened to do it violence if it was still there when we moved in. Fortunately, they had taken it with them.
My questions:
Are these two foot concrete geese that get dressed up in silly clothing a widespread phenomenon, or are we the only town having to deal with this?
I don’t have a problem with the geese themselves… it’s the clothes. Does anyone else think this is as silly as I do?
Do I need to have my mother committed? Or should I just buy her some Barbie Dolls and let her relive her youth?
Your town is the only town in the world that does this.
How long have you been attracted to clothed animals?
Your mother and her entire family should be brought in for their own safety and the safety of the community. Held indefinitely. Released only with the signature of two independent psychiatrists and the parole board.
I’m going to have to post pictures of this. They are everywhere… on a given middle income street, at least two or three houses will have a goose in clothing. The one down the street from me is dressed as a cardinal. Took me a while to figure that one out, too - I was wondering why they had a goose on their porch dressed as Lucifer.
Well, here in the US they used to do it in the early 90’s. At least in Indiana. You Canadians had the option to see how stupid it was and stop it there, but nooooo. Ummm…you are from Canada, right?
I saw something about dressed up geese a few weekends on one of the networks or CNN or somewhere. They did a story on this couple that makes the clothing. Its their entire livelyhood.
The report mentioned that these people were getting somewheres around $50 an outfit.
$50 an outfit. $50 an outfit. I don’t know whether to be flabbergasted, annoyed, pissed that I didn’t come up with this idea myself, or what. I know I feel disturbed, deeply disturbed.
This is one bit of bizarre Americana I could have lived a long and happy life without knowing about. While it is evidently harmless, (as long as they stick to concrete geese), it is just a touch disturbing, isn’t it?
The truly frightening part is how cheerfully normal all the goosaphiles sound: “We have a 26 inch “plastic goose” that has a removable plug on the bottom. You can fill it with a little sand or kitty litter (unused preferably) because it is definitely a light-weight without it. This just makes the goose feel a little more secure during earthquakes and tornadoes. And yes, we will ship it. It sells for $16.95 and once it’s dressed it looks o:k. Not a 10 but a good 6 or 7. Be the first on your block with a Goose from Emily’s!”
The first on my block! I hope I’d be the first in my county! (Of course, that’s probably hoping too much).
Actually, I think my aunt might have one of these things. She lives in Canada, and she was always that way, even when she lived here . . .
It is not a single town thing unless you live in Dayton OH as well. The geese are ubiqutious here as well. Once thought of ‘kidnapping’ one and taking it with me as I travelled, sending postcards to the owners from it every stop I made.
Damn, I am getting old…we had a REG from the SDMB AOL days who would do outrageous things to her neighbor’s geese and then post about it…I can’t remember who this was…i am sure another oldie will come along and remind me.
but we have a thing in my area (dallas/ft.worth) that a lawn will spontaneously sprout dozens of plastic flamingos overnight, and then disappear the next day.
It bewilders me.