Saturday, September 7, 2024
AZLE — Despite traveling the world, Alex Roberson always comes back to Azle.
For most of his life Roberson has lived in the community and loved going on cruises. For the last month, he has been working to bring a fun aspect of his nautical adventures back home.
“I’ve been on the same street essentially my whole life,” the AHS Class of 2009 grad said. “It’s nice to just be in your hometown and to see how much it’s grown. I don’t really want to go anywhere. I love it here.”
Allegedly, it was 10-year-old Abbey Davis who started the tradition of hiding rubber ducks on cruise ships when she went on a family vacation leaving Galveston in 2018. Today, it’s a treasured part of the cruise experience for many travelers.
“It’s kind of turned into this huge phenomenon,” Roberson said. “People hide hundreds and hundreds of ducks per cruise. I’ve done it a couple times, but I thought, ‘It’s pretty cool. I should try to start this duck thing here in Azle and just see what happens.’”
Born out of his cruise ship experiences and a practical desire to improve his own health, Roberson began hiding ducks at the park during his regular five-mile walks. He hid four ducks, at least one of which was promptly found and posted to Facebook. On his next walk, Roberson’s mother came along, hiding several ducks for the Fourth of July. Before long, more people began finding rubber ducks in the park and joining the Facebook group Roberson had created for the activity. Eventually, the Azle Police Department noticed. Instead of booking him for quackery, the department joined in on the fun themselves, placing police ducks on vehicles around town along with the message “you’ve been ducked by the Azle Police Department.”
“I think to have the support from the police department is definitely the highlight of this whole thing so far,” Roberson said. “They are people just like us and they want to have a strong community and that’s just another way of them meeting people. Going to the park or putting them on people’s cars (is) just an opportunity for them to get to spark a conversation, just let people know they’re here to keep people safe. I was really happy they started that, blown away actually.”
The 33-year-old works from home in human resources for HCA Healthcare and prints his own labels for the ducks he hides. Roberson’s labels ask duck finders to share a selfie with their duck on the “You’ve Been Ducked – Azle, Tx” Facebook page and to help him in spreading joy and positivity through the community. “Keep or hide, you decide,” the labels say. “Whatever you’re dealing with, I’m proud of you!”
Roberson is no stranger to the online spotlight. He currently has over 46,000 followers on Facebook where he posts photos and videos from his frequent sea voyages. He has also recently started “The Cruisers' Podcast” on YouTube sharing cruise tips, experiences and advice from the perspective of an experienced traveler. In an interview with the Tri-County Reporter, Roberson shared that his Facebook page had recently reached 18.1 million people in a 28-day period. As well as hiding ducks, Roberson also shares drone footage of weather and other interesting phenomena to the “Azle Aerials” Facebook page.
“Lots of projects are starting to happen to me and it’s really, really fun because I’m just a kid from Azle,” Roberson said. “I still pinch myself every day. It’s been a huge blessing to ride the wave of social media.”
Ducking isn’t just popular on cruises. Allison Parliament of Ontario, Canada, who passed away June 22, has been credited with expanding the practice by leaving rubber ducks on strangers’ jeeps, while some claim “Jeep ducking” has been around even longer than Parliament’s 2020 post. Whatever the case, it’s now not uncommon to see Jeep owners displaying a menagerie of colorful rubber ducks on dashboards across North America.
Comparing the activity to an Easter egg hunt, Roberson suspects the novelty and reward of finding unique ducks is what keeps people searching. He sees it as a way to give back to the community and bring a bit of his “cruising addiction” back home. The positive reception he’s received so far has only further fueled his antics. He hopes to inspire others to hide ducks of their own, expand to Shady Grove Park and eventually even other communities.
“Slowly but surely, it’s growing and I’m super excited to see where it goes,” Roberson said. “I think it’s just different. Whoever started this eight years ago on a cruise ship, they picked a duck. It’s fun. I guess when you see it just makes you think back to being a kid.”
