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Documenting and creating The Pigeon Story has been a passion and dream for a very long time. I’ve always wanted to share with the world my passion for pigeons. I’m doing so by sharing interviews of some of my friends and people who still raise and fly pigeons today.
A relative and neighborhood friend introduced Pigeons to me at the very young age of eight. I became fascinated by the grand beauty, structure, and flight of these amazing birds.
In the mid 70’s, as I was growing up in the local community of Sandtown-Winchester in Baltimore, MD, it seems that pigeon coops and lofts were everywhere I looked. To my amazement, many people in my community took to the hobby of raising and flying pigeons.
Back then, my mom and my sister and I lived with my great-grandmother. My great uncle Rufus Waller, Sr., lived there too. He raised and flew pigeons and was a natural born carpenter. Seeing him at his craft exposed me to how pigeon lofts were constructed. Also, there was a guy by the name of Verdell Demby, Jr., who we called Birdy, that taught me how to raise, fly and maintain the amazing birds.
For most of my teen-aged years, raising pigeons was a major hobby for me. It provided me a beautiful, loving connection to nature and to life. During that phase of my life, my friends saw how in tune I’d became with the pigeons, they nicknamed me Pigeon Man and I loved it.
My mom was instrumental in nurturing how I felt about pigeons. She recognized my love for them planned a trip to the lumber yard and purchased all of the lumber I needed to construct my first pigeon coop. She saw how much I truly loved the birds and backed me 100%. I built the coop from scratch right in my great grandmother’s backyard. Wow, I was the happiest young boy in Sandtown-Winchester because she understood my love for pigeons.
Today, in many urban communities, there seems to be a growing curve from nature among our youth. It seems as though there is nothing positive and stable enough that connects them to nature and the environment around them. I can truly say, I found my connection to nature and the environment through the love of pigeons.
Thank you to all the participants and interviewees.The Pigeon Story was filmed In Loving Memory of Rufus Waller Sr. & Verdell "Birdy" Demby Jr.
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