TOLEDO, Ohio — Every year at Jeep Fest, Jeep owners gather in downtown Toledo, home of the iconic vehicle, to enjoy the company of other Jeep owners and, of course, to show off their rides.
But one of the things that might leave non-Jeep owners scratching their heads, are the little rubber duckies, all colors, shapes, and sizes, that seem to be everywhere.
Toledo Jeep Fest event director, Whitney Rofkar, said placing ducks on Jeeps is a tradition that comes alive at the fest.
But when and why did this all start?
Attendees themselves have all kinds of different ideas.
"I think the Jeep community is such a vast community, it was a way to show another Jeep person what you thought about their Jeep," said Event attendee Michael Smitch.
Smitch is referring to the tradition of "ducking" another Jeep-owner or leaving one of the little keepsakes on their vehicle.
Brianna Adams, another Jeep Fest attendee has another idea of where it started.
"A woman in Canada owned a Jeep and she had a whole bunch of children and anytime, she had rubber ducks and stuff like that to keep them calm something to play with."
Many Jeep owners say they not only enjoy receiving ducks, but they also make sure to give out ducks of their own.
"Well the same reason they originally gave out the first one, it makes people happy. Everyone smiles when they see a duck right? It's a good thing. It makes people happy," said Kelly Marcun, another Jeep Fest attendee.
Adams said the the ducks are a sign of comaraderie between Jeep enthusiasts..
"It's companionship between the Jeep people and the community. It's just a way to stay connected," said Adams. "A nice Jeep, we duck a lot of Jeeps ourselves so we keep bags on them in our Jeep," said Smith.
When we asked people how many ducks they received, they said it's too many to count.
"You'll never see 'oh I already have that one' 'I already have that one,' there's always more ducks than you've seen before," said Marcun.
The number of ducks a Jeep owner collects can easily reach into the dozens, or hundreds.
"I would say well over two hundred, that are just unicorns, and we've been ducked probably way more times than that," said Smith.
While it's clear people like to give them out now as an act of admiration and respect we still aren't sure of the official story of where the tradition got its start.
Whitney Rofkar seemed to have the answer to the mystery.
"A girl in Canada was the victim of some road rage and some negativity and so she really turned around the script," said Rofkar. "She was like 'I'm gonna pay it forward to folks and I'm just gonna spread kindness around,' and so she ended up sitting little ducks on other people's Jeeps to kind of spread the love and say 'hey, you guys got a sweet Jeep'."
And that's the official story.
Even more important than how it all got started though are the good feelings the tradition engenders that ensures the little rubber ducks aren't going to go away any time soon.
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