In a recent interview in Modern Drummer, Kotche said that he used Scandinavian chicken paddles in the band’s song “Sunloathe.”“I screwed a finger cymbal to the middle of them, so the wooden chickens peck it when I move the paddle in a circle,” he said in the interview. A 2011 Los Angeles Times story told of him interrupting a rehearsal when he realized he didn’t have his chicken paddle and that it had to be fetched. Glenn Kotche, a percussionist with the Chicago band Wilco uses his own version and other accompaniments – back massagers and hand fans, vintage teapots and clappers, ceramic tiles and hubcaps – in songs.
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YouTube had several videos demonstrating how they worked, while another site showed you how to make your own. Some were made in Japan, others in Russia, and someone posted a video of a toy made in Mexico. I found other colorful examples with thick-bodied chickens unlike the flat ones on the toy at auction. The toy itself was described as a pecking chicken paddle or pecking head chicken paddle. A fuller view of the top of the chicken paddle toy. The chickens, which had articulated or movable heads, were set in motion by pulling down on a wooden block attached to the strings. Prices on eBay were closer to Amazon’s, but a New Jersey auction house last year sold what it described as a folk art chicken paddle for $1,100. “Sometimes the simplest toys can be the most fascinating,” a reviewer and buyerwrote. The description stated that paddle toys were popular in Poland and that they were “entertaining” for children. A very colorful one was selling on for $9.99. I was surprised to learn, though, that they were still being made, and apparently are popular in some locales. Just how long can you watch chickens peck? I figured that such a simple but delightful game like this had decades ago lost its allure for children. With my new knowledge, I conquered the game and could imagine the fun the woman as child must have had with it. The chicken paddle toy was a new find for me but a memory for another auction-goer. She had long forgotten the name but had kept the memories. I watched in awe and then laughter as the chickens started pecking the board, pulled by the strings on the ball. Red handle in hand, she twirled the toy in a circular motion. I was struggling with it when a woman approached me, remembering the game from her own childhood and offering to show me how it worked. I tried paddling it, but that didn’t work. And the string on the ball appeared to be in knots. The chickens on top and the wooden ball underneath differentiated this game from the more familiar one.
You know the one – you hit a red rubber ball against the paddle and try to keep it from falling off. It reminded me of the paddle ball toys I’d played with as a child. I was picking over some disparate items in a box at auction when I spotted a round paddle board with wooden chickens on the top.
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