#ducksong

“All they had was lemonade

All I wanted was grapes”

There was a song. There was a song about a duck. There was a song about a duck and a lemonade stand that went viral sometime in my youth. I listened to it once or twice, remembered seeing there was a part two and three. I laughed at that little duck, sung its tune in my head once or twice. I might have told a friend about it, encouraged them to watch the silly little videos, but that was it. I forgot about it eventually, much like most of the popular content online, it was popular until the next video came along and we all watched that and told our friends about it and it was like the song about the duck never even existed. But then, years later, meme culture brought the duck back. Something along the lines of “if you remember this you’re old” or “remember when everyone was obsessed with this.”  I too had a brief moment of nostalgia, may have even cracked a slight smile for the good, old duck song. I rewatched all three parts, and started to favourite tweets about it, but then as per usual it was once again forgotten  quickly as it was remembered. And I too thought I would forget that little duck, that he would slip away from my thoughts once more, and I would move on to the newest dog with eyebrows, or feel old about something else. But that wasn’t the case. This time I did not forget. When the rest of the world waddle-waddled away, I all I could think about was grapes, grapes, grapes. 

I started out singing the song in my head when I took the train to work. Normally I’d play music, but when I moved home for the summer my head phones got misplaced in the still to be organized boxes and luggage. The fact that I knew they were in there kept me from buying new ones, but the trivial task of looking for them was the reason I road with my thoughts. It was fine, I could utilize this time to really think about things, find out what I really wanted. I’ve always been a thinker, which is what made me such a good philosophy student, and an annoying friends. I looked far too into things, and picked a part their motivations. I was in a constant state of wondering why people did what they did; I myself was not able to escape my query. What was the underlying purpose of my actions? What was I hoping to accomplish when I posted a photo or smiled at a stranger. Some things were easier to determine then others, or at least easier to reason. Other things wracked my brain for days or weeks until I moved on to something else. But nothing before was like the duck song. I have never encountered such an ear worm turned obsession. 

It wasn’t all so deep. It took a long time for my tweets to go from just tweeting a simple phrase, “hey! got and grapes?” to “maybe I’m the duck! I can’t stop looking for grapes in all the wrong places!” and so so many tweets alike in between. I compared the duck’s final question of “got any lemonade?” to my love life and always wanting what I can’t have. The way I like someone until they like me and then it turns out I didn’t want that at all! I referenced that Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant film when I said, “I’m just a duck standing in front of a lemonade stand, asking for some grapes.” Not even my late night depress-y tweets gained as many concerned DMs as my duck tweets. And I made many desperate, late night depress-y tweets. The duck song was taking over my whole social media presence, and really, it was taking over my life. 

It wasn’t uncommon for my twitter to experience a theme takeover. I’d overly tweet about my tragedy on the dating scene one day, or I’d even go weeks writing about how I could not stop texting my ex. I’d create graphics to further the comedy of my content, and I’d even watch them spill into my conversations with my friends. It wasn’t a secret that I would take topics and ideas and run with them until I was over it. The problem was, I wasn’t getting over it. There were days I’d be simply cleaning the kitchen and I’d turn to my sister and say, “when life gives you lemonade, ask for grapes!” almost out of no where, sometimes I was surprised I even thought of it. I’m not saying that the song was making me crazy, or that I was crazy, but there were moments when I felt a little crazy. Moments when I could not stop myself from relating the duck to all aspects of my life, which really said a lot about my life. 

Crimson Creative Challenge – Dancing on Still Waters

D  ancing on still waters. U  nable to fly. C  an I just float for ever? K  indly come back again. 2022©Isadora DeLaVega ~~~~~~~~~ Crimson Creative Challenge – #173 to join in click here