A Nauga Thanksgiving

Hi Folks,

Thanksgiving was great this year. Of course you had the usual hectic period of getting ready for the big day. Running back and forth from the store to get that one essential that you forgot during the last trip, coordinating with all the folks who are supposed to come over, deciding who’s gonna cook what, and who’s just gonna show up while everybody else is busy pulling their hair out tryin to make sure that everything turns out just right.

Yep. Everything went just as you would expect for such a peaceful, laid back kinda holiday. ‘Course that was at my house. Things were a little different over at Ben Swanson’s place. Seems Ben decided to do things a little different this year. His family always went to Charlie’s Market about a week or so before Thanksgiving to pick up a frozen Turkey. Wasn’t nothing too special about it. Just the normal pre-Thanksgiving trip to the store for everything they’d need to make the big meal. Bread crumbs, yams, gravy, cranberry sauce, celery, apples, everything one would want to do a huge family meal.

But not this year. This year Ben got it in his head that he wanted to do things more traditionally. Wanted the whole family to get involved with the whole meal process. He loaded up the two by four with the wife and kids and they headed on out to Thurston’s Poultry Farm out on route 9… made a half day of it. Well old Jim Thurston was right happy to see them. Not too many folks actually go out to the farm these days. Most folks do just what Ben did every other year. They head to the store and pick up their bird, dead, plucked, gutted, and all ready to cook. So Jim was a little surprised that someone would actually make the trip out to see where the whole process starts.

Yep. Jim was plumb pleased to see them. Took them for a tour of the farm. Showed them the big pen where he keeps his chickens once they’re old enough to fend for themselves. Then he took them to his hatchery where al the little chicks come from… showed them his incubators. He has rows and rows of them things… ‘course only about a quarter of them are being used at any one time. Actually had some new chicks just out of the shell. The kids just loved ‘em. It was hard getting them to move on to the real point of the visit. But eventually they managed to get all the chicks back into the incubators and the kids out the door.

Next on the itinerary was the turkey pens. Jim brags about having the biggest selection of Turkey breeds in the county. Why he has the Beltsville Small, Bourbon Red, Narragansett, even a few Slate and Blacks. But his pride and joys were the varieties of German Turkeys he managed to acquire a few years back. Jim positively beamed while talking about ‘em. Well Ben and the family were In hog heaven. Just couldn’t believe that there were that many types of Turkeys. They pretty well thought that the only Turkey that existed was the Broad Breasted White. At least that’s the one that mostly sits in those grocery market bins where folks pick their Turkeys every year.

Yes Sirree, them Swansons were pretty much mesmerized by all them turkeys. Big ones, fat ones, thin looking ones… they just had no idea which one they should pick. The kids, Sissy and Jonas, were pretty set on getting a couple of the heritage breeds but Ben had already decided what he wanted... didn’t really care what breed they was. He let the kids play with the turkeys for awhile… in fact it was hard to get them out the pens… but finally he picked the two biggest, plumpest ones he could find, convinced Jim that he really wanted to take the birds with him… alive. Well Jim was pretty astonished but it wasn’t every day that someone bought two live birds… shoot it even saved him the trouble of… well you know.

Well they packed them two birds up as best they could, squeezing them in the two by four in the back seats with the kids. Ben wanted to put them in the trunk but the kids just wouldn’t hear it. Old man Thurston gave both kids a bag of corn with instructions to watch their fingers. Forty minutes later and a ten bleeding fingers later they drove up to their house and piled out of the car. ‘Course by that time them turkeys had pretty much imprinted on those kids and vice versi. So you can imagine that them kids put up quite a ruckus when Ben made went to the barn and came out with an old stump in one hand and an axe in the other. T’weren’t no way those kids were gonna let dad do violence to their new pets.

Ben argued with them for awhile but after awhile even he could see that he wasn’t gonna get anywhere. He shook his head and allowed that maybe they could wait ‘til morning to decide what to do with them birds. Course then he was kinda stuck… hadn’t planned on them being around very long… didn’t have no place to put ‘em. Ended up putting them in the pen with his Naugas. They didn’t react to the turkeys being put in there so he figured they’d be alright… at least for the night. Figured the kids might be a little more amenable to having Thanksgiving dinner after they slept on it.

Well Ben got up bright and early the next morning… figured he’d beat the kids out to the pen and solve his little turkey problem. After all, once them turkeys were… all nice and neat and ready for dinner t’weren’t much them kids would be able to say about it. Chances are they wouldn’t even bat an eye once they were elbow deep in drumsticks and gravy. At least that was what Ben told hisself.

It was a good plan. The kids were fast asleep in the upstairs bedrooms and there weren’t nobody around to see him do the deed. All he had to do was get them turkeys out of the Nauga pen and get to it with that axe he’d sharpened just for this moment. ‘Course he hadn’t figured on them Naugas.

Ben took that axe and laid it against the pen in clear sight of the turkeys and the Naugas. The turkeys didn’t pay it no mind but them Naugas on the other hand… well they seemed to know right away what Ben was all about. As soon as he opened the gate to the pen them Naugas just started milling around. One or two made a break for the open gate but Ben was able to head ‘em off and get the gate closed before they made any real progress in trying to get out. Just in case though, Ben made sure that gate latch was good and tight… didn’t want no Naugas getting out while he was tending to the turkeys.

Well he finished with that gate and turned around… and that’s when the trouble started. While he’d had his back turned dealing with the two jail breakers, the rest of the Naugas had herded the turkeys so that there was a solid wall of Naugas between them and Ben. Ben tried to push his way through but them Naugas just kinda bunched up so he couldn’t make no progress no matter how hard he tried. Then he tried to do an end run, moving over to the side of the pen were there were fewer Naugas, Didn’t work… them Naugas just shifted around, keeping the turkeys smack dab in the middle of them so that no matter which way Ben moved there was always a solid wall of Naugas to deal with.

This must have gone on for almost an hour, Ben moving this way and that… even trying a running start to jump and grab them turkeys. Didn’t do no good… Ben just ended up getting more and more frustrated the longer he tried to get at em. He’d finally just about worn them Naugas down and was almost within reach of one of them when he heard Sissy’s voice from outside the pen asking… real calm like… “Daddy… What are you doing?”

Ole Ben just stopped in mid stride, caught red handed so to speak. Not knowing what else to do he turned to where Sissy was leaning on the pen watching him intently with her bright eight year old eyes. “Why… I was just checking on them to see how they were doing.” What else could he say. He wasn’t about to admit to his daughter that he was trying to “prepare” the turkeys for Thanksgiving after she’d gotten so attached to them on the ride home. Sissy just looked at him for a moment, those big eyes just staring straight into his heart… then she walked over to the gate, worked it open and came right in, carefully closing the gate behind them. “Let me help Daddy.” She said as she walked up to him.

Well Ben was stuck. He couldn’t say no… couldn’t tell her to go back to the house… couldn’t keep trying to get the turkeys and them Naugas seemed to pick right up on the change in the situation. They loosened right up with most moving off to different parts of the pen and only a few standing by… almost as if to make sure that things would stay friendly-like. Sissy, still holding Ben’s hand, walked right up to those turkeys… Ben says she has a way with animals… and pulled some leftover corn out of her jacket pocket. Them turkeys just closed right in and ate it right out of her hand… real gentle like… even let her pet them and give one a great big hug. “This one’s Smokey ‘cause his feathers look like that.” she said peering up from where she clung to Smokey’s neck. “That one’s Scratch ‘cause he’s always scratching at something or other.”

That’s when it hit Ben like week old chili. There weren’t no way he was gonna be able to do anything to them birds. He was stuck. They was officially pets and there weren’t nothing he’d be able to do about it. Ended up building them their own pen before the day was through. Even had a nice little house… really a shed… but the kids thought it was a house. Come Thanksgiving time those two birds even had their own dining area in the house right up there with the rest of the folks. Think the whole family had Tofurkey... kids kinda demanded it… didn’t want Smokey and Scratch to be upset that folks were eating one of their relatives.

Like I said, just the usual run of the mill Thanksgiving here in Nauga country.

Well that’s it for now. ‘Til next time… Jon