I am a Duck. An Oregon Duck. I fly a lot. I like flying. I like the wind beneath my wings: the lift and loft. The freedom. And I like great landings especially, because it means I made a safe flight. I made it happen. Thank goodness for good feathers and a pretty good sense of direction. That is the key to “getting there”. Maybe it’s because I am a Viking Duck. Vikings have a pretty good sense of direction.

Sometimes though, like everything in life, ducks or I can get lost. It’s ok because if you believe in your own ability to fly, you can find your way, even if you have to ask for help One of my jobs in life was a twelve year career as a flight attendant. I depended on pilots and towers to get me safely to my destination. Then when I left flying I had to depend on just me and sometimes I forgot that there might be a greater tower. Maybe I should look up more often and ask for help.

My father was a duck and I had a brother who also was a duck. He would have liked the fact that his daughter (ME!) had been head cheerleader for the Ducks. He would have liked to have gone to a Duck football game at the incredibly loud stadium: Autzen Staduim in Eugene, Oregon. My deceased brother didn’t get to see me do “my stuff” on the field but I always felt he was watching. I also think of him as a directional tower.

Last year was a big year for the Oregon ducks. The football team ended up going to the Rose Bowl (unfortunately they lost) and the state was going crazy because the team they had to beat to get to the Rose Bowl berth was only 36 miles up the freeway - Oregon State. That game was the hottest rivalry and the biggest game to be played in Oregon school history. I was moving back to Oregon from California on the week of the game. In the car driving north, all I could think about was that I didn’t have a ticket. I hadn’t had season tickets in years - an bad thing for an ex cheerleader. As I approached the turnoff to the university, I could see the new addition to the stadium and the large “O” on it’s side from my window driving up I-5. Should I veer off and try to get a ticket, I wondered? Heck yes!

I barely made the turnoff; a crazy thing to do. I found out at a gas station that the athletic department had not closed off the ability to get to the stadium. A flood of memories came back. I drove in, parked next to the ticket office. I ran into a fellow getting out of his car…the car had a license plate that said “navy pilot”. I asked him if he’d been a pilot, he came over to my car and said “I know you”. (?!) I didn’t recognize this handsome ex pilot until he told me that he and I had lived in the same co-ed dorm and that he remembered me as a cheerleader (WHAT were the chances?) He told me to wait for him for a few minutes, so I went into the Duck store and bought some Duck goodies. When I returned to my car there were two standing room only tickets under my windshield wiper (thanks Tom) for the sold out game. I thought for a second and said ” the tower is with me…”

I then decided to try to get upstairs into the athletic department and see if I could get through security and get into the coaches offices to see if my buddy from years ago was still there. The temperature was to be 28 degrees for the night game. I went in and, sure enough, the young man working the front desk told me my friend had just left fifteen minutes ago. We tried his cell with no luck. I asked him if he was in a fraternity and he replied “Sigma Chi” (we’re in luck here, the Duck brother had been a Sigma Chi and had taught me the secret handshake). I asked him to shake hands, flipped him the grip and asked him if the offices upstairs had a bunch of sculptured wooden green and yellow ducks. He said “Yes, they’re big and all displayed”. I told him “Yes, I gave those to the department”. I then found myself being taken through security to the epicenter of Rose Bowl strategy. And there on the shelves in the entrance were my Ducks… in Director Bellotti’s office and scattered throughout the offices. (Bellotti is now an ESPN color announcer).Yup, I loved my Ducks and there they were. Dan Fouts had gotten one and also the famous announcer; Keith Jackson. I was feelin’ great…and proud. I had an offer to sit with one of the secretaries at the game…sorta half a seat.

I drove down Saturday to the game. A steady sream of Interstate 5 cars headed down the road completely dressed in the two schools colors. NO incidents, no obnoxious behavior. Cool. Well. I must have looked up at the tower because as I was at the stadium entrance, a fellow came up to me offering me a fifty yard line ticket on the 14th row, complete with a legit bar code, with a trade of my two tickets and $40 bucks. Deal. So, with my power tower, I listened to my own direction, got to the department, got to see my ducks, got to say hi to some coaches, got a fifty yard line ticket, wore my cheerleader Duck pin and in 28 degrees in a screamiing stadium saw my Ducks win. Okay, they lost to Ohio state and in my opinion wore defeatest white uniforms, not GREEN and GOLD helmets and school classic colors..but defeat colors.

Since then, my hand puppet Duck with wings visits The Hotel Huntington bar in San Francisco. That green mallard Duck visits with the people in the bar and orders an old fashion glass of water. If he gets upset he puts his yellow bill in the glass gets his sip, and shakes his bill disgustedly if he is offended. The Duck flies right and pays attention to his tower. The Duck raises the bar. When all is right with the world, all my ducks are in a row.