November 26, 2014 (Wednesday)
The PBS television series, “Nature,” periodically shows a program entitled, “My Life as a Turkey.” A farmer left a bowl of sixteen turkey eggs on Joe Hutto’s front porch one day, and he decided to let them hatch. When the turkeys emerged from their shells, they fixed their eyes on Joe, and he became their mother for the next two years. The program is interesting and entertaining. It will be shown again Thanksgiving evening. It is the story of how the turkeys taught Joe how to see the world through their eyes.
My first experience with living turkeys came when I was spending the summer with R.C., Crystelle, and Dene Powell. I was pastor of the Oletha Baptist Church, 20 years old, single and was taken into their home for the summer of 1952. R.C. was raising turkeys that year, and he had a pen for them not far from the house. It became my job to see that they received water from the well near the house. I filled the huge containers daily. As they grew, I filled them several times a day. I recall one day, when they were nearly grown, that I stood amidst them and felt one pecking at my shin. Others joined him and in a minute I was the object of their interest, each pushing his way to the action. I confess, standing in the middle of a hundred or so huge turkeys, each intent on pecking, I was scared. I got out of there as quickly as I could, leaving them gobbling, “Come back here, you coward!”
About six years later, while in the seminary, I worked for a feed store and granary near downtown in Fort Worth. The boss assigned me the job of caring for about 150 young turkeys in a building next to the store. My job was to see that they had food and water. They were very young, about the size of chickens known as pullets. A cold front came through one night, and when I arrived the next day, I found them all huddled in a corner of the building, piled upon each other, smothered to death. A sad and expensive ending for the owner, C. B. Marshall.
In 1963, a turkey was presented to President Kennedy for Thanksgiving, and he considered it too small to eat, so he sent it back. The press commented that he had “pardoned” the turkey, but Kennedy never said that. Later on, Ronald Reagan sort of pardoned a turkey, but it was G.W.H. Bush (“Bush 41”) who specifically pardoned one. He set the course for an annual ceremony for the president to pardon a turkey. The scene will be repeated today.
Cuero, Texas, is the home of more turkeys than you can count. Many of them march in a parade every year. I remember one year when the Rockport High School band was invited to participate, and a young member of the band told her parents, “We get to march behind the turkeys!”