A Penguin's Tale

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Now the reason for the penguin beer blogging…

First, let me say that my mother was one of those people who somehow became associated with liking and collecting things related to a particular animal. We all know the person who has everything giraffe or elephant or Kuala bear. It becomes part of their identity.

Well, at some point 30 or 40 years ago my mother must have expressed some fascination with penguins. After that she began to become associated with the flightless water foul. Maybe it was because liking penguins was so unusual, people took notice. Anyway, by the time of her death this month she had amassed a large collection of penguin paraphernalia ranging from stuffed animals to ceramic figurines to penguin storage bowls. Her license plate even contained some abbreviated version of the word penguin. Mind you, she bought almost none of this stuff herself; it was mostly all given to her. She was the penguin lady.

So with that in mind, it was a great treat for us to find out this week that a friend of hers has adopted (i.e. sponsored), in my mothers name, two of the penguins at Springfield’s Henson-Robinson zoo. Some of the zoo’s penguins are pictured below.


We only found out about this arrangement through a letter from the zoo. It’s actually quite a toughing gesture. Mom would loved to have been the adopted parent of a couple of penguins.

So, next time you’re at Henson-Robinson zoo, say hi to mom’s new kids.