The Peabody Ducks - so quaint

The Peabody Ducks
4th October 2015
The Peabody Hotel is a fine Memphis Family owned Hotel in Downtown Memphis; opposite the Holiday Inn where we stayed. A quaint 80 year old tradition of marching ducks exists and is a tremendous draw into the Hotel every morning and afternoon. The Hotel has 5 resident ducks on the top floor which are looked after by a farmer and at 10.30 am each morning people start to gather in the Hotel Lobby in preparation of the 11 am Peabody Duck March. The Duck Master, resplendently dressed in a fine red coat, holding a black walking cane with an ornamental gold top rolls out a red carpet from the lift through the lobby to the fountain and puts a red carpeted staircase against the indoor fountain for the ducks to walk along and climb into the fountain pool. He tells the story of how 5 ducks were found in the Hotel fountain one morning after a hunting party had returned with their live decoys the night before/early morning. Being slightly worse for drink but having no where to put the ducks they popped them into the fountain expecting it would be fun seeing the staff chase the ducks around in the morning. However the ducks had stayed in the fountain and it was decided to keep them. Next the Duck Master chooses an Assistant Duck Master from the assembled audience. Today it is a very excited and prettily dressed 6th Birthday girl who gets a framed certificate, a model duck and use of a small replica cane. Her job as Assistant is to join the Duck Master on the lift to fetch the 5 Peabody Ducks down from their night accommodations. A military march with brass instruments rings out as the lift, Master, Assistant and The Peabody Ducks arrive. As soon as the ducks hit the red carpet they make a dash for the fountain, rushing down the red carpet, some jump up the carpeted stairs and into the water; a couple escape and jump in via the marble fountain wall. The Duck Master waves his stick at them and shouts, "Up the stairs", the ducks ignore him and are already swimming together in the fountain. Having waited 45 minutes throughout the preparation and sat as we were told to, the whole Duck March took 15 seconds or so. The well behaved crowd then came forward to take photos of these lovely ducks,  patiently waiting for us to go away so their day in the fountain could begin. At 5 pm every day the whole process is reversed and the ducks go back up to the top floor on the lift.