Wow!  Have you ever seen anything cuter?   Heck no.

A rubber duckie.  Holy cow!   How can anyone resist getting one for your toddler, your baby, your grandchild.  How can anyone resist getting one for yourself.

I had a just wonderful experience yesterday that I want to share with you.  I was walking aimlessly in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris and I come upon a Paris Duck Store.  Yes, indeed.  A store dedicated only to rubber ducks.  Can you believe it?  a store that sells only one thing – rubber ducks.

And rubber ducks of all sizes, shapes, colors, and images.  There had to be hundreds of different models in this one store.

What did I do, you may ask.  Well, I could not resist.  I stopped and went right into the store.  Not because I need a rubber duck, but because I literally could not resist the urge to be around and smell and touch the rubber ducks.  Something came over me.  I had to be there.

In addition, I noticed that all of a sudden I broke out into a huge smile.  I was instantly happy and content with life.  How does it get any better than this, I am secretly saying to myself.

I felt like a little kid in a candy store.  By just being there it brought back so many feelings of being a little kid, with a bright outlook on life, and with wonder at every new thing I saw and touched.  It brought back the joy of being a young child.

And then I immediately thought of my children and my grandchildren.  Wouldn’t they love to be here with me.

I had not focused before on how important a rubber duck has been to me.  But when I think about it, I realized that I have had one somewhere around me for my whole life.  In fact, I have one right on the counter as you enter my getaway pad in California.  You cannot come into my home without seeing the yellow rubber duck.

Rubber ducks are important not just to me, but to millions of others.  The reasons are numerous.  For one, anyone with a baby or toddler knows that a rubber duck in the bathtub makes a huge difference in how your child responds to what sometimes is a fear of water.  Second, the colors of the rubber ducks are so vibrant and bright.  Yellow is my favorite.  Third, the noise that the ducks make when you squeeze them is squeaky.  It can’t help but make you smile.  Fourth, the rubber itself is such a smooth texture that everyone loves to hold and play with the duckie.

How did the rubber duck come about?  I have done some research.  The duck was inspired by a Dutch artist named Florentijn Hofman.  He has written:

The rubber duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation. 

The friendly, floating rubber duck has healing properties: it can relieve Mondial tensions as well as define them.

The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages.

It turns out that rubber ducks became very popular after the emergence of new ways to manufacture rubber in the late 19^th century.  It also turns out that these hand painted ducks have hundreds of different styles and models.  I am told that some 2,000 different rubber duckies are available to purchase online.  The toy has reached icon status.

As a result it has been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester NY.

The Guinness Book of Records says that the largest rubber duck collection is held by Charlotte Lee with 5,631 of them.

Finally, I was shocked to learn that the City of Amsterdam in the Netherlands is considering or has already enacted zoning law changes designed to ban further rubber duck stores in their city.  The reason being that apparently the city’s 1.5 million residents are feeling overwhelmed by the number of tourists visiting their city.  Part of the their solution is to ban further souvenir stores and stores like rubber duck stores that presumably attract tourists.

I, for one, feel strongly that the City fathers of Amsterdam should make an exception to their proposed legislation by allowing rubber duck stores to continue to sell and expand if need be.  My reasoning is that rubber ducks are a symbol of happiness and childhood memories.  The more of that we have around us the better!!

And, yes, I could not leave the Paris Duck Store without purchasing two rubber ducks.