”I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.”
Yesterday’s rain has given way to a bright, pretty day. The sky is a deep blue. A now and again wind blows the tallest branches of the pine trees. It will be in the 50’s.
Yesterday was a good day. Nala met with Santa who seemed inclined to forgive her nefarious ways. I sort of won a turkey. I was the first. My radio station, Koffee FM, was broadcasting from Agway. They were giving away turkeys every 15 minutes. Mine now sits defrosting in the fridge. It is big enough to feed a small town. The Turnip Festival concert was excellent. We had a huge number of players and a wonderful audience. They loved the bluegrass music. Christmas tune practice starts this week.
When I was a kid, I didn’t like many vegetables. My mother cooked what she thought we’d eat. I never tasted Brussels sprouts, turnips, spinach, broccoli and so many more. The list is long. I ate carrots hidden by my crafty mother in potatoes. I ate celery because I didn’t know it was a vegetable. I ate potatoes, fried and mashed. I never gave their status a thought. I loved summer fresh corn, but I also ate kernel corn and creamed corn. I just didn’t like the way creamed corn spread all over my plate. Baby peas were my favorite veggie. It was always on the Thanksgiving table.
I never saw a live turkey. I saw pictures. I also never saw a live chicken. As far as I was concerned they came wrapped and ready for cooking. The turkey had its innards, its giblets, liver and heart, and its neck, stuffed into the cavity. My sister cooked her first turkey with them still inside. My other sister was a bit taken aback when she found out we didn’t stuff the head. In Ghana I had to buy my chickens live. I picked out the ones I wanted in the market, the ones destined for the table. Chickens were never pets. We didn’t get friendly. They were dinner.
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November 24, 2024 at 3:07 pm
Hi Kat,
Today the sky is mostly sunny and the high temperature will reach 80°. By Thanksgiving morning we should get close to our first freeze of the year.
The first time I saw a live chicken was in 1954. My mother had an older brother who lived in El Paso Texas. My mother decided to take my sister and I to visit him while my father was on a two week trip to Kansas City and St. Louis. My mother didn’t realize how far it is from Dallas to El Paso, it’s about 660 miles. After 14 hours we arrived. El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is from Dallas to Los Angeles. 🙂
My uncle and his new wife, Angelina, lived in Juarez while she was obtaining her immigration status. She was also raising chickens in her backyard. She was showing me the chickens, when she asked me what I wanted for dinner. I replied, chicken. She then grabbed one and swung it over her head to wring its neck. Of course I was aghast, and it was the first time I ate chicken enchiladas.
My uncle was a real character. Between WWI and WWII, my grandfather signed up my uncle Jack into the army. They stationed him at Ft. Bliss, in El Paso where he lived out the rest of his life. He told me that the army treated the horses better than the men, this was because the horses were worth more. In those days the border towns were very safe and people crossed over to Juarez for food and entertainment. Texas was dry, no alcohol, and Juarez was wide open including boy’s towns. My uncle knew everyone on both sides. He had learned to speak pidgin Spanish. If he couldn’t think of a Spanish word he would insert either an English word or a Yiddish word. 🙂
He had many careers including a cavalry soldier, a pawn shop owner, and finally a used clothing store owner. His store was located near the international bridge in downtown El Paso. After his passing, I discovered that he had spent a few years in prison for some kind of theft or high-jacking. He was an adventurous person.
November 24, 2024 at 3:49 pm
Hi Bob,
We had our only frost earlier this month. It killed the remaining flowers. Our night temps have mostly been in the 40’s.
I raised chickens when I was in Ghana. A friend gave me a sitting hen. Her eggs hatched, but she was a horrible mother. She’d leave with chicks and come home with fewer, the rest probably eaten by snakes or vultures. She became dinner. My next hen was a good mother, and I raised several chickens for food. I never killed my chickens. I handed that chore off to someone else.
Your uncle sounds like quite the character. I wonder if he had trouble back then because he was married to a Mexican woman as even now people give problems to mixed couples.
November 24, 2024 at 11:02 pm
Obviously, El Paso is a border city and there are lots of residents of both Anglo and Hispanic couples. My wife, when she was in high school, had a friend who lived in El Paso, their family had a young Mexican woman living in an extra bedroom who was a nanny.
November 24, 2024 at 11:52 pm
I was thinking it must have been in the 50’s when marriages were pretty much couples who were of the same origins. Having a nanny who was Mexican or Black wasn’t so rare.