#857 Yard flamingos are more than just lawn kitsch

With spring right around the corner, nothing says smiles more than some yard flamingos. Heck, yard flamingos are fun all year around if you ask me. You know the ones, those nostalgic plastic lawn ornaments in the shape of flamingos. Yard flamingos, or some people call them lawn flamingos, are perhaps the most famous lawn ornaments in the United States although perhaps the garden gnome is giving them a run for their money these days. Both have come to be the stereotypical example of lawn kitsch.

Believe it or not, plastic pink yard flamingos were designed in 1957 by Don Featherstone while he was working for Union Products.

There is a lot of documentation and news stories with words like ‘official’ and ‘copyright’ and ‘imitation’ but blah blah blah I say. They always make me smile no matter who makes them and, whether or not, like the ‘originals’ which were sold in pairs, one is standing upright and the other has its head low to the ground, “feeding”.

There are companies that sell yard flamingos in bulk and people use them for fund raising. They will plant dozens of them on someone’s lawn and request a donation in exchange for removal of the birds.

In 2009, the city of Madison, Wisconsin Common Council designated the plastic flamingo as the city’s official bird. Yet some homeowners associations forbid the installation of plastic yard flamingos and similar lawn ornaments, and will fine offenders, based on the idea that such decorations lower the neighborhood’s real estate values. Uh, maybe. Since I did not want to test that I keep our yard flamingos in the back yard. Oh, and ours are not pink. We have theses-

And that really makes me smile.

Do you have yard flamingos where you live? What do you think of when you see them? Miami Vice? A John Waters film? Click here to leave a comment and share your opinion and experience. Would love to hear from you.

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Buy the book The Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass
by Don Featherstone and Tom Herzing on Amazon today.

“In 1957, Don Featherstone sculptured the first three-dimensional pink plastic flamingo, thereby making affordable bad taste accessible to the American public”–from Pink Flamingos. This is the tale of a wonderful bird, named by his creator phoenicopteris ruber plasticus; a new avian species, now known to all as “Pink Plastic Flamingo.” The more than one hundred pictures and the text in this volume are the result of Featherstone’s request that adoring owners of the pink birds send original photographs that demonstrate their affection for phoenicopteris on its 40th birthday in 1997. An overwhelming response included such masterpieces as: “Biker Birds,” “What a Pear,” “The Wedding Party,” “Anyone for Bridge,” “Purple Passion,” “Beachcombers,” and the sweetly romantic “Flamingo Honeymoon.” If you’re a believer, or even an skeptic, take a look, see for yourself. This book is one of a kind, the documentation of American genius, homage to an icon, or, perhaps, a rare opportunity to observe a culturally tolerated symbol of taste gone awry. It’s great fun!

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