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Life's Ponderings: Christine "Liz" Larue's Crow
- Christine "Liz" LaRue
- Sep 3
- 3 min read
When I was a little girl, my father worked at the University of Chicago. In one of their quad courtyards, they used to have an open aviary where they were researching bird behaviors. One group they researched was crows. You could go to the aviary, buy an ice cream cone edible cup (sans ice cream), and fill it with bird seed. You could hold the cup in between the bars, and the crows would eat right out of your hand. The researchers wanted to catalogue these interactions. What happened was the crows started picking up basic language, like "Hello!" "Pretty bird!" was something they heard frequently.
As a curious 6-year-old, I learned how to make a pretense to go to the bathroom at my Dad's office, zip across the quad with my 5 cents, feed the crows, and have fun talking to them. My absent-minded father would occasionally miss me while babysitting me, waiting for Mom to get off work. I got to know a number of the crows quite intimately and learned to identify them by face, including the ones who talked.
After a month of this subterfuge, Dad and I were walking towards the aviary to go home. I pointed out one of the crows and said, "Daddy, he knows how to talk!" My father pooh-poohed that, saying no such thing. I dug out a nickel, got some bird feed, and the crows I talked to immediately flew over to me. The first one who came was the one I talked to the most. My father watched this with amusement. I pointed to my closest feathered buddy and said, "He's the one who talks the most! Say 'Hello'!"
The crow did just that very clearly, cocking his head to one side (I still remember thinking the crow winked at me!)
My father was so stunned, he dropped his briefcase on the sidewalk. One of the scientists came out to help him, and then said how helpful I had been to their talking experiment with the crows. Then he proceeded to tell "how often" I came to do so. Dad cocked an eyebrow at me, "LIZ! What have you been doing? I thought you were always in our office building!!!! You've been coming here without a grownup????"
My moment of scientific glory was busted!
Just at that point, the crow said, "Hello!" and Dad barked at the crow, "You're not helping!" My 6-year-old brain piped up and said, "See, Daddy, you can help with the experiment too!" I distinctly remember my father picking me up and carrying me to the bus stop in a hurry. He was so mad at me, cuz even going across the quad was probably not the safest thing for a 6-year-old to do, and one with leg braces that had to cross a street.
I got into so much trouble. I got relegated to office duty while at Dad's office, filing papers, stacking textbooks. But I missed my feathered friends. After a month in office jail, we were walking to the bus stop again. Dad paused at the aviary, dug out a nickel, and handed it to me, grinning. I seized it, ran and got birdseed, and my crow buddy immediately flew over to me while I was getting the cone for the seed. He remembered my face! Dad was blown away!
Years later, in my 30's we had a crow family nesting in a neighbor's tree next door. They had babies cawing all the time. As my Dad and I walked out to our car on a sunny afternoon, one of the adult crows flew down from the tree and walked right up to me. I looked at it and said, "Hello! Taking a break from the kids?" My Dad stopped in his tracks, one eyebrow raised."Not THAT again??? Liz, stop talking to the crows. Our neighbors might think you're going around the bend!"
I was surprised he remembered!
Artist Bio
Christine “Liz” LaRue is a clay artist and illustrationist. She is known for her intricately textured figurative sculptures and emotionally illustrative drawings. Chicago-born though also raised in Utah and Idaho, Ms. LaRue is of Creole/Cuban descent. Her art has been influenced by her Afro-Latino heritage. Ms. LaRue’s interests have been in pre-Columbian art of the Olmec, Maya of Mexico, Nazca, and Moche face pots of Peru. This also includes the bronze sculptures of the Ife of Nigeria and Tā Moko tattoo art of the Maōri.
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