Showing posts with label lawn geese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lawn geese. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Things I Never Understood #1: Clothed Lawn Geese

On my walks around the 'hood I think about all kinds of things. Today it was those concrete geese that people dressed up back in the early 1990s.

I never understood why women were making fancy dresses and bonnets for concrete geese. There were all over! Often the geese had an old fashioned dress and a poke bonnet. I haven't seen one in a long time.

I did a quick Internet search and learned that the fad actually began in the 1980s in the area from Pittsburgh south to Kentucky and spread from there.

I found an Atlantic article from 2018 "Nothing Says Midwest Like a Well-Dressed Porch Goose" by Julie Beck that informs the demand for clothes was met by start-ups like Goose Clothes Galore. Then the pattern companies caught on.
Image result for lawn goose clothes patterns
Simplicity pattern for lawn geese clothes
Turns out outfits for lawn geese are still a hot commodity. You can order Christmas and even Halloween outfits on eBay Etsy and at Miles Kimball.

Frankenstein Goose Outfit-352265
Miles Kimbal geese outfit
Apparently, there is a 'hipster' revival as a new generation inherits those concrete geese!

I found a Prairie costume along with all kinds of dresses at The Depot that felt like the classic clothes I recall seeing.
Goose Clothes Complete Holiday Goose Outfit Prairie Floral Dress and Hat Costume
clothes from The Depot
At least one person is making dresses for their real geese, with patterns at House Goose.

If you have a goose and don't want to dress it you can learn how to repaint it at Petticoat JUNKtion.

Our little two-square-mile suburban town is writing ordinances for fowl keeping, so I guess this is the new trend: why have a fake fowl when you can get the real thing? We will have a limit of four hens per household and strict rules for housing and cleanup.

Now I wonder if they have patterns for chicken dresses...

The History of Goose Lawn Ornaments
https://www.ehow.com/info_8059753_history-goose-lawn-ornaments.html