October 31, 2010 - Flamingo War

We have a flamingo war with another family here in town. Maybe a better description would be a flamingo tradition. I think it all started years ago when we would buy ugly yard ornaments and just go to these folks' house and leave them in the yard or on their porch. We also did things like "forking" their yard with hundreds of plastic forks. I remember when we gave them a hideous, plastic swan that was actually a planter, and we stuck silk flowers in the back of it where the flower pot should go. Their then three-year old loved the swan and toted it around in the house for quite a while. She's thirteen now, and the swan is history.

As the years have gone by, the yard ornaments continued until we got a little frightened at one point when some of the decor began to look "good" to us. That was scary, and we had visions of becoming people with bottle trees or yard gnomes in odd places. And I apologize if some of you have those items in your yard, because I do not mean to offend. But we eventually opted for trading off flamingos in the yard as the decor of choice.

Some of the flamingos have been red with a Razorback nose such as the one we left them when their daughter went off to UofA. Our Traci had a blue flamingo complete with a graduation hat and diploma when she graduated from high school. Then there was the orange, Tiger-striped flamingo in our yard when Kelsey went off to Ouachita. It was complete with a banner, and a little suitcase with sheet music sticking up out of the case with the OBU fight song printed on it. Oh yeah, and that one wore a very accurate replica of the hats worn by the marching band. We still have it, and I can't bear to part with such wonderful artwork! They even put a bride and groom set of flamingoes in our yard on our twentieth anniversary, and that was more than seven years ago. When Barry had his appendix out, there was a flamingo in a hospital bed with an IV pole and a chart. When Barry began his job teaching, they had a conductor flamingo in the yard with a couple dozen smaller, wooden flamingos to represent children in his choir. Lots of fun and great stories surround each of the decorating adventures, and when we find the latest decor in the yard, we always say, "We've been hit"!

Well, last night some other friends had dropped by to bring me a breast cancer Christmas ornament. At one point, we walked outside, and I saw something in the yard, and I yelled, "We've been hit"! And here is what we saw:

A flamingo was painted yellow and had a mane of hair to look like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz. Off in the distance was a replica of Oz decorated green, and coming from Oz was a lighted yellow brick road. The yellow flamingo was walking away from Oz on the yellow brick road, wearing a medal of "courage" it had been given at Oz.

We've always smiled and been touched with our little flamingo war and its backs and forths, but this "hit" holds such special meaning for me. I've been to Oz, and I DO feel as if I've been given a medal of courage while visiting there. The medal is made up of support and prayers of family and friends, and it is proudly being worn on this yellow-brick road of recovery and survival. No lions, tigers or bears will scare me, and I'm going to be okay. I have a medal of courage!