Six Sentence Story: Rubber Ducky, You're The One!

When she was little, she had plenty of tub toys, but never one of those rubber duckies that would squeak, and she always wanted one, especially when she would watch Ernie on Sesame Street having so much fun with his.

Whether it was because her mother didn't want another noise-making toy in the house, or just never thought the request was sincere, or simply never thought to look for one in the store, she didn't get one as a child.  

After she grew up, people would ask what she wanted for various occasions, and her answer that she still had always wanted a rubber ducky made people laugh, but none believed she meant it.

Then one day, all grown up and with grown children (who had all had rubber duckies of their own when they were little, she made sure), she saw the perfect rubber ducky, on clearance for only eighty-eight cents.

Should she, she asked herself, waste that bit of money on something she clearly did not need but just wanted, especially as money was tight enough that there might be a question of which bills to pay at the end of the month?

The ducky still sits proudly where she gets to see it every day, and the smiles it brings are worth much more than the price she paid.

Best $0.88 ever spent.

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Duck.

Today is:

Commonwealth Covenant Day -- Northern Mariana Islands

Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice -- Argentina

Dies Sanguines -- Ancient Roman Calendar (sacrifices to the war goddess Bellona)

Hola Mohalla -- Sikh (3 day grand festival)

Holi -- Hindu (Festival of Color, where everyone gets doused with colored water, or powder, or paint, or all of them; it's been described as an iridescent madhouse)
     officially recognized holiday in Guyana; India; Nepal; Suriname
     Phagu Purnima / Basanta Utsay -- Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Houdini Day -- see if you can pull a disappearing act in his honor

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims -- UN

Kazimiras Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (return of the larks)

Komoeditsi -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calandar (honors the great Bear God, Meveshii Bog and includes sacrifices to the Great God of Honey)

Left-of-Field Fanciers' Fortnight begins -- Fairy Calendar

Maundy Thursday -- Christian (a/k/a Holy, Green, Chare, Sheer, or Shere Thursday; commemoration of the Last Supper)
     Procession of the Addolorata -- Taranto, Italy

National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day

National Letting Go of Stuff Day -- see lettinggocafe.com for details

National Revolution Day -- Kyrgyzstan

Pandia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Zeus that immediately followed the Greater Dionysia; date approximate)

Purim -- Judaism (began sundown yesterday, through sundown today)

St. Catherine of Sweden's Day (Patron against miscarriages)

St. Gabriel the Archangel's Day (traditional date, now usually celebrated in September; Patron of childbirth, diplomats, messengers, postal workers, stamp collectors, telephone workers)

St. MacCairthinn of Clogher (St. Patrick's "Strong Man" and fellow worker; Patron of Clogher, Ireland)

Wear a Hat Day -- UK (a brain tumour awareness event and fundraiser)

World Tuberculosis Day -- UN & WHO


Birthdays Today:

Peyton Manning, 1976
Alyson Hannigan, 1974
Lara Flynn Boyle, 1970
Sharon Corr, 1970
Mase, 1970
Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway, 1965
Annabella Sciorra, 1964
Star Jones, 1962
Donna Pescow, 1954
Louie Anderson, 1953
Alan Sugar, 1947
R. Lee Ermey, 1944
Bob Mackie, 1940
Steve McQueen, 1930
Byron Janis, 1928
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1919
Dorothy Height, 1912
Joseph Barbera, 1911
Clyde Barrow, 1909
Ub Iwerks, 1901
Dorothy Constance Stratton, 1899
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, 1887
Edward Weston, 1886
Harry Houdini, 1874
Andrew W. Mellon, 1855
William Morris, 1834
John Wesley Powell, 1834
Fanny Crosby, 1820


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Nightline"(TV News), 1980
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"(Play), 1955
"Native Son"(Play), 1941
"Letter from America"(Radio), 1946


Today in History:

Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus, 1401
James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England, 1603
The first game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia, 1629
Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island, 1664
Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers, 1765
Benjamin West of the US becomes president of Royal Academy of London, 1792
In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr., 1832
Canada gives African men the right to vote, 1837
Robert Koch of Germany announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis), 1882
Oscar Straus is appointed the first Jewish ambassador from US (to Turkey), 1887
A. A. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history, 1896
"Census of the British Empire" shows England rules 1/5 of the world, 1906
Greece becomes a republic, 1923
U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth, 1934
The longest game in NHL history is played between Detroit and Montreal; Detroit scored at 16:30 of the sixth overtime and won the game 1-0, 1936
In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III, 1944
The British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership, 1946
Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761), 1958
NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing, 1965
The United Kingdom imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland, 1972
In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón, 1976
Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador, 1980
In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground, 1989
Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, 1993
Apple Inc. releases the first version of the Mac OS X operating system, 2001
Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election, 2008