ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996                TAG: 9605290110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: LEOMINSTER, MASS. 
SOURCE: CAROLYN THOMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS note: below 

LORDY, LORDY; IT'S TACKY AND 40

NOW CONSIDERED a slice of Americana, the plastic pink flamingo passes a new milestone.

One of the icons of the American landscape - no, not the bald eagle or the bison, but the plastic pink flamingo - is turning 40. And it's still not getting any respect.

Despite its enduring appeal (15 million to 20 million have been sold over the years) the lawn ornament can't seem to escape the T-word, a fate that ruffles the feathers of flamingo fans.

``People say they're tacky, but all great art began as tacky,'' said Don Featherstone, the Union Products vice president and artist whose signature is molded in every flamingo body. ``Art Deco in New York was torn down. But now, they're putting it back up.''

Featherstone himself is a bit of a strange bird. A sculptor with a classical art background, he and his wife of 20 years dress alike every day. He attends many flamingo-themed social events sponsored by groups like the Society for the Preservation of the Plastic Lawn Flamingo.

His plastic company's catalog pictures page after page of adornments suited for any gardener's fancy: a 22-inch black-and-white penguin, a blue-headed pheasant, a green-chested rooster.

All nice. But just not the same thing.

``I tried to put some ducks out there because this is duck country,'' said Mary-Elizabeth Buckham, who has a flock of pink plastic birds on the lawn of her Victorian home in Centreville, Md. ``But nobody wanted to see what they were doing.''

Buckham dresses her 34 birds - curving pink necks, spindly wire legs and seamed hollow bodies with molded feather detail - in homemade clothes and rearranges them every week for an adoring public.

At Christmas there was a nativity scene with flamingo wise men and a flamingo baby Jesus. At Thanksgiving there was a ``flurkey flock'' and at Halloween, flamingo ghosts. Even lawn jockeys aren't that versatile.

The first pink flamingo ornaments, in 1952, were flat, made of plywood. They were made of foam a few years later, but dogs tended to eat them. They've been made of plastic since 1957.

Some versions just didn't fly. A movable-leg model some years back was a flop.

Half a million of the birds move off store shelves in America, Mexico and South America every year, at $9.95 a pair. With numbers like that, Featherstone says he'll suffer the sarcasm.

``As long as they keep buying them, I really don't care,'' he says with a smile.

LENGTH: Medium:   60 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   AP Artist Don Featherstone has endured the criticism he
          gets as the father of the plastic pink flamingo. ``As long as they 
          keep buying them, I really don't care,'' he says.  color