The Armstrong Clan Society
Ceud Mile Failte! - One Hundred Thousand Welcomes!
The Armstrong Clan Society has been organized to:
1) Seek friendship and unity among Armstrongs and associated families.
2) Provide for the preservation of Armstrong artifacts unique to the family and to maintain a library.
3) Serve as a genealogical and historical recorder of the membership,
4) Provide quarterly news, Armstrong history and genealogy via The Armstrong Chronicles,
5) Establish geographic membership representation.
Membership
All Armstrongs, Croziers, Fairbairns, Groziers and Nixons, regardless of spelling, and their descendants, are eligible for full membership in The Society. All others interested in furthering the goals of The Society may become associate members. In the United States and Canada, dues are $25 per year, including two adults and all minor children. In all other countries dues are $35 per year, payable in US funds.
You can click here to download a membership application.. Any questions? Email Peter Armstrong at parmstrong2@sc.rr.com or mail to Peter A. Armstrong 128 Essex Dr Summerville, SC 29485
Joel Armstrong and the Spokane Ducklings
Submitted by Anne Armstrong, TN from a newspaper article
Joel Armstrong, is a loan officer at Sterling
Bank in downtown Spokane, WA. He works in a second story office building,
overlooking busy Riverside Avenue. The newspaper article was written by
Joel's brother.
Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning
outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The
mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched
over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and Monday
afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.
Joel worried all night how the momma duck was going to get those babies
safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take
to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching.
Tuesday morning, Joel came to work and watched the mother duck
encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to
jump off!
The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In
his disbelief Joel watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge
and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. My
brother couldn't watch how this might play out. He dashed out of his office and
ran down the stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was
in a stupor
near its mother from the near fatal fall. Joel looked up. The second duckling
was getting ready to jump! He quickly dodged under the awning while the mother duck
quacked
at him and the babies above. As the second one took the plunge, Joel
jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the cement.
Safe and sound, he set it by the momma and the other stunned sibling, still
recovering from its painful leap.
One by one the babies continued to jump to join their anxious family
below. Each time Joel hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of
time as the duckling made its freefall. The downtown sidewalk came to a standstill.
Time after time, Joel was able to catch the remaining 7 and set them by
their approving mother. At this point Joel realized the duck family had only
made part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across
traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open water,
the Spokane River.
The on-looking office secretaries then joined in, and hurriedly brought
an empty copy paper box to collect the babies. They carefully corralled
them, with the mother's approval, and loaded them up into the white cardboard
container. Joel held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then
slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the Spokane River, as the
mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight. As they reached the river,
the mother took over and passed him, jumping into the river and quacking
loudly. At the water's edge, the Sterling Bank office staff then tipped the box
and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and to their mother after their
adventurous ride.
All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up
snugly to momma duck. Joel said the mom swam in circles, looking back
toward the beaming bank workers, and proudly quacking as if to say, 'See, we did
it! Thanks for all the help!' Thankfully, one of the secretaries had a digital
camera and was able to capture most of it (except the actually mid-air catching)
in a series of attached photographs
New 02 Aug 2008