This story starts in Seattle with a porch goose in a strawberry outfit.  Do I have you captivated already?  Good – this is worth reading!  My brother, Jim Gasparich, and my sister-in-law, Mary Jo Fehrenbacher, moved to Seattle over forty years ago.  They have two beautiful children, Sara and Matt.  This caring family has journeyed back to Joliet almost every summer to visit both sides of the family.  Like Jim and Mary Jo, Matt and Sara have Joliet in their blood.  Joliet culture that we take for granted, they have keenly observed and treasured.  So, when Sara recently turned 35, her dear husband, Hendrik, gave her a dream gift.  This gift would transport her mind back to good ole Joliet – a porch goose in a strawberry outfit.  Ha!  I never really gave those geese much thought.

Mary Jo texted, with joy, to the family group text  that Sara received this gift.  Well, that joy was contagious.  It put me in a jolly mood that I have not felt in a long time due to the coronavirus scare.  You see, I know that my Aunt Anna Mae Thayer, who lives very close to me, has a goose just like Sara’s. Would it not be fun to walk over there and snap a picture of it for the group text?  Well, I thought so.  I am easily amused.  I send out a group text that I am off on a goose chase to find a porch goose and that I am not coming home until I find one!  I will walk all day, if I have to – I texted!

So I start on my two block walk to my Aunt’s house.  Yeah, it was cheating that I knew she had a goose.  The fam did not need to know.  I would be a group text hero.  A group text hero – with stars in my eyes.  A group text hero – with stars in my eyes.  (Sorry, I could not resist the Foreigner song pun!)

But I had no idea what I was about to encounter.  I walked two houses down.  Yes, just TWO houses and I found my first goose!  So excited, I snap a picture and send out the news on the group text.  What fun!  What a surprise!  Well the story does not end there.

Did you count them?  YES!  I took only 4,600 steps and I found TEN porch geese!  Most dressed, some naked, but all proudly displayed.  Oh, and the goose wearing the football helmet and jersey, that is the Thayer’s!

I knew about the porch goose.  I knew about the outfits.  What I did not know was just how many porch geese call Joliet their home.  But Sara did.  Sara knew a porch goose was a Joliet icon.  And she wanted one on her porch in Seattle to remind her everyday of the Joliet people that love her so much. Porch goose – Joliet pearl.