Ducks Dally Along Main Street

By Kendra Bobowick

Duck, duck… duck!

Phil Lyon and Tarren Horvath were admittedly just “doing something odd,” and watching reactions of passersby, when they decided to lead three ducks on leashes along Main Street for a little while one recent afternoon.

Tom Cassin, a friend of the two, kept track on video Friday, June 11, as the high school classmates conducted their sociology project prominently, midafternoon, later settling on the back steps of C.H. Booth Library.

As library guests stepped out the back door, they looked down toward the parking lot, past the students, Phil’s sister Jill, Tarren’s mother Maria Horvath, onlookers Mairin Hayes and friend Jaxx Winkler, and the ducks. One mature and two young ducks were sitting on the steps, very quietly. Walking away from the group and tossing a comment over his shoulder, one bystander commented, “That’s a total first.”

“We’re just seeing what’s happening,” Tarren explained. “We’re watching reactions,” Phil said.

Per a class assignment, Tarren said, “We wanted to break the social norm.”

What is the norm? “Walking a dog,” he said.

The ducks, which were docile and mostly silent despite the foot traffic around them on the library steps, belong to the Horvaths’ veterinarian friend.

Exclaiming that the ducks were “really fluffy and cute,” Mairin laughed with Jaxx, who added, “We wanted to see them the moment we heard about it.”