Whenever I would go over to my grandma and grandpa’s house in Anoka, MN, I used to always play in their yard. I especially loved to play in the front yard (my grandma’s domain) because it was always like a magical fantasy-world filled with colorful flowers, lots of shrubs and plenty of neat lawn ornaments. Yep, I’m talking gnomes and pink flamingos. Still, the front yard was a great place to escape reality and play pretend. I wonder if my grandma felt the same way when she was in her space. Was she expressing her own personal desires, dreams and fantasies through her whimsical collection of plastic and potted plants—or am I totally over-analyzing my grandma?

Entirely possible.

Anyway, The Christian Science Monitor had a fun article about the iconic pink flamingo and how Don Featherstone, the man who started it all back in 1957, has closed down his flamingo-making plant in Leominster, MA and stopped producing “phoenicopteris ruber plasticus”—according to the Monitor, that’s what Featherstone called his faux-feathered-friend.

I know. I almost needed a paper bag too. But fear not avid collectors. At least three companies have so far expressed interest in getting their hands on the mold, so kitsch can continue to exist in the front yards of millions of Americans.

You can read about why this bird is so important to so many people here.