Skip to main content

Blast from the Past


 

The Columbia, MD subreddit continues to be a refreshingly drama free source of local information and lore. Consider the following:

What’s something about old school Columbia that newer residents never experience?

There used to be a peacock farm visible from 175.

     Where was it?

The farm house was about where the hotel (was a Hilton, now Double Tree?) and the barn was about where the funeral home was. Back along Twin Knolls.

The hill was great for sledding before it became a bunch of businesses and peacocks wandered a bit.

- - Where the Walgreens is.

A peacock farm? I live right down the street from the site of a former peacock farm and no one ever told me?

A quick Google search didn’t turn up any record of this place, but, I’m not done looking yet. In the meantime, I did discover two HoCoLocal places that raise peacocks.

Clark’s Elioak Farm, Ellicott City

Neither of these businesses has photos of peacocks on their websites. Phooey. It seems rather ridiculous to write about the male of the peafowl species without letting you look at one. After all, in general the fuss is all about the feathers. At least, to me it is. I remember being fascinated in my childhood by the peacocks who roamed free at the Cleveland Zoo. I don’t know if they do that anymore.

Well, here’s Oliver. He lives at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. That’s apparently as close as we’re going to get this morning.



It turns out that farmers raise peafowl for a variety of reasons apart from the male’s decorative plumage. You can indeed eat their meat and their eggs. Plus, peafowl are prodigious foragers which helps with pest control. 

Do you remember the peacock farm in Columbia? Or, have you visited with any other local peacocks? Let me know.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more