Survival in Tough Times: If you don’t already feed the birds, consider starting. It’s an investment in peace and tranquility, and don’t forget that the old bird woman will be smiling at you from her place on the steps of St. Paul’s
In May of 1972, I went to Europe for a three-week stint. I was just a year into an eye-opening run as a double history major at Indiana University. For years I had read widely, feasting on the literature and history of Europe, with a particular focus on England, every native speaker’s cornucopia of language and heritage.
There were the usual things to check off my must see list. I wanted to go to sites where my reading had taken me like Victoria Station, Baker Street, and the Old Bailey of Sherlock Holmes and Dickens. There was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge along the Thames and the National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square. I went to see the Ardabil Carpet at the Victoria and Albert Museum after discovering it in Dr. Martin’s Islamic Civilization class freshman year.
St. Paul’s in the Blitz
I walked the Westminster Bridge across the Thames to the Embankment, then into Parliament Square where I gazed up at Big Ben. Around the corner was the statue of Richard the Lionheart. Wasn’t expecting that one! Nearby was Westminster Abbey. I went in and stood close to the place where Geoffrey Chaucer rested. Within a few feet were Tennyson, Samuel Johnson, and Kipling. It made my head spin. Back outside in the chilly May air, it was only a few steps back to the public entrance to the House of Commons. There are steps up to the visitor’s gallery, then I stood at the railing to look down upon the somber green leather benches, the oak paneling, the scepter, and the dispatch box. There was no sign of the damage that resulted when 12 different German bombs came through the roof during the war. Names and images flooded my imagination. I thought of Magna Carta, Cromwell, Wilberforce, Wellington, Fox, Cobden and Bright, and, of course, Churchill.
The most important place to visit, however, was Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. Begun in 1679 in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London of 1666, it was familiar to me from by the dramatic wartime photos of the dome surrounded by smoke and fire during the worst of the Blitz. Overhead the pilots of the RAF fought the Germans furiously every day before the bombers came across at night to drop their tonnage on a darkened London.
Feed The Birds - Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews)
Inside were the tombs of Wren himself, along with Lord Nelson and many others. As I approached the great cathedral, however, my goal wasn’t to go inside but to visit a spot on the front steps. The nave stretches east and west with the main steps on the west end. I went around to the north side of those steps, near the street level, because that was where I had seen the old bird woman sit with her bags of crumbs. In a 1964 film, a nanny sang the song Feed the Birds as a lullaby to Michael and Jane, the children in her care. The nanny was Mary Poppins, played by Julie Andrews. Mary Poppins was successful in lulling the children to sleep, of course. Being Mary Poppins, she was practically perfect in every way, including this one. Jane Darwell played the old bird woman as her last role. As Andrews sang, the scene became a soft-focus vignette. It was a golden moment when everything faded away and the viewer was there on the steps with the old bird woman. That day, as I sat on the steps, I played the scene in my head, with closed eyes.
Birds of all kinds are fascinating to watch
Feeding the birds seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Growing up, we were encouraged to learn the different birds in our area. My brothers were in scouts, so the importance of nature and learning birds and trees and insects was second nature. Near our house were the farm fields and pastures of central Indiana. Many species of birds lived there, giving the place even more interest than I suspected. Even in those years we had a set of four bird books published by Whitman Press, like these.
It was a few years later before I began to acquire a collection of Golden Guides. One of the first was the volume of birds. Over the years I pored over these hundreds of times, sharpening my knowledge and making it possible to name birds I had never seen previously in the wild, often at first glance.
In the early 1960s my dad worked for an HVAC company. That meant there was lots of sheet metal and furnace ducting around the shop. One day he came home with a folded piece of galvanized sheet metal that now reminds me of the roofline of an atomic ranch home. He had made the feeder on a sheet metal brake at the shop, and using two scrap pieces of baseboard, he made a center support post to keep the roof up where it belonged, screwed it together, and mounted it on a post on our patio. It was my first exposure to the idea of feeding the birds. We must not have been the first place to have a bird feeder because there was wild bird food already available. This was made up of mixed millet, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds. We soon had blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, mourning doves, and sparrows taking advantage of the bounty and giving us an up-close look at the birds. In those days we could buy suet in chunks at the grocery store for a few pennies to attract woodpeckers. Feeding the birds became a tradition.
An investment in peace and tranquility
These days the tradition continues. Birds of all kinds are fascinating to watch. There are winter resident birds and summer resident birds. There are birds that pass through in the spring and others that gather in flocks in the fall before leaving. Many birds are habitat specific. Some prefer open fields but others will only dwell in the woods. There are swamp birds, mountain birds, northern birds, southern birds. Some birds will only consider certain kinds of feed. Some will not come to a feeder at all. Some like hummingbirds, are insectivores, but will only come to a feeder for liquid nectar.
On very cold days, like the recent winter storm, the feeders are crowded with many species. But in warm spells many stay away or only visit occasionally. There are big birds and tiny birds, and they’re all fun and interesting.
If you don’t already feed the birds, consider starting. Maybe begin a life list of the birds that you see. Every discount store and feed mill has feeders and feed. Grain, however, has become much more expensive the past couple of years. Sunflower seeds have nearly tripled in price. Still, it’s an investment in peace and tranquility, and don’t forget that the old bird woman will be smiling at you from her place on the steps of St. Paul’s.
Dr. Bruce Smith (Inkwell, Hearth and Plow) is a retired professor of history and a lifelong observer of politics and world events. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to writing, he works as a caretaker and handyman. His non-fiction book The War Comes to Plum Street, about daily life in the 1930s and during World War II, may be ordered from Indiana University Press.
Feeding the birds seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Growing up, we were encouraged to learn the different birds in our area. My brothers were in scouts, so the importance of nature and learning birds and trees and insects was second nature. Near our house were the farm fields and pastures of central Indiana. Many species of birds lived there, giving the place even more interest than I suspected. Even in those years we had a set of four bird books published by Whitman Press, like these.
It was a few years later before I began to acquire a collection of Golden Guides. One of the first was the volume of birds. Over the years I pored over these hundreds of times, sharpening my knowledge and making it possible to name birds I had never seen previously in the wild, often at first glance.
In the early 1960s my dad worked for an HVAC company. That meant there was lots of sheet metal and furnace ducting around the shop. One day he came home with a folded piece of galvanized sheet metal that now reminds me of the roofline of an atomic ranch home. He had made the feeder on a sheet metal brake at the shop, and using two scrap pieces of baseboard, he made a center support post to keep the roof up where it belonged, screwed it together, and mounted it on a post on our patio. It was my first exposure to the idea of feeding the birds. We must not have been the first place to have a bird feeder because there was wild bird food already available. This was made up of mixed millet, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds. We soon had blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, mourning doves, and sparrows taking advantage of the bounty and giving us an up-close look at the birds. In those days we could buy suet in chunks at the grocery store for a few pennies to attract woodpeckers. Feeding the birds became a tradition.
