Tom Turkey and the tom tom drums
We moved back to Brookhaven in the late Winter of my first grade year, Dean was in the 3d, but for some reason the Brookhaven School system decided since we moved from another state….(mainly that sinful city of New Orleans …lol…Brookhaven was a real prude city back then)…, so late in the year we would have to repeat those grades again. That wasn’t any fun but at 6 yrs old I don’t pay as much attention as Sis did being in 3d grade. But we survived, we had each other.
We had fun during the summer and ran free and did all the things kids did for entertainment, back in the 50’s and a few things other kids didn’t do…lol…we’d catch lightening bugs, made animals out of Maypops, ( thanks Penni for reminding me of these) have you ever spent hours making your own toys to play with. We had a whole farm yard full of maypop cows…lol…as much fun as making clover necklaces….
Granny had an old Tom Turkey, Oh my he loved to strut and let everybody know who was boss… that barn yard was his, hey that was fine with me, he could have the barn yard, but he decided he wanted the whole 90 acres along with front and back yards with the front lane thrown in to boot....we called him Demon and man that sucker would make the Devil himself run for cover, he was bad, mean, evil, sneaky and cunning Even Granddaddy’s old English Bull dog that loved to hunt snakes ran for dear life from this thing, he was huge, he had to stand 7 feet tall, his eyes were red and his talons were like switch blade knives, and a good 12 inches long, You walk outside the safety of the front yard and you’d hear those wings flapping and those giant feet stomping the ground , have you ever hear a turkey stomp the ground, not a pretty sound.... sounded like war drums, boom, boom, boom, you wasn’t sure if it was Tom beating the ground or just your heart beating from fear and your life would flash before your eyes and the first words you’d scream was OH CRAP RUN-N-N-N-N-N-N and you could hear the ping of those talons popping out like a switch blade knife and cold chills went up your spine…all you could do was run for the picnic table in the front lane and pray you made it before he did…I still carry scares on the back of my legs were I didn’t run fast enough…Dean’s theory was all she had to do was out run me…this was one bad dude, the only person he didn’t scare was Granny and that was probably cause she was as mean as he was…now when I said his eyes were red, I wasn’t joking, he was solid white with beady red eyes, first Albino Turkey I ever saw. Granny had to keep him locked up in a stale next to the corn crib and when you had to go in the corn crib to get some corn to feed the pigs you better make sure you didn’t get close to the left wall cause he was going to get you with them switch blade claws, through a crack in the boards.
He was so sneaky, we would ease outside and look for him, ahhh, he’s nowhere to be seen, breathing a sigh, thinking he’s locked up, lets go play and when you got just far enough away from the front porch to not have a snowballs change in heck to make it back to the door, he’d ease out from behind the corner of the house and stomp those big feet and the chase was on….once we made it to the table, he'd strut around and around it with those tail feathers spread and gobbling all the while, like he was daring us to run, well now our Momma didn't raise no fools, we weren't going no where, neither was Spot who usually made it to the table with us. Granny would have to come shoo him away so we could get down, as long as she was there he wouldn't run us, oh but he wanted to you could feel those beady eyes staring, hoping she'd leave while we were still far enough away from the door... she should have baked him for Thanksgiving, but as ornery as he was he'd probably been to tough to eat or gave us all food poisoning....Lord I hated that Turkey and didn’t grieve one bit when he passed in his sleep, I couldn’t help but laugh, I wonder where the Devil was hiding when he came through Hell’s gate and started stomping those big feet….ping..ugh oh there goes them claws...lol...
We moved back to Brookhaven in the late Winter of my first grade year, Dean was in the 3d, but for some reason the Brookhaven School system decided since we moved from another state….(mainly that sinful city of New Orleans …lol…Brookhaven was a real prude city back then)…, so late in the year we would have to repeat those grades again. That wasn’t any fun but at 6 yrs old I don’t pay as much attention as Sis did being in 3d grade. But we survived, we had each other.
We had fun during the summer and ran free and did all the things kids did for entertainment, back in the 50’s and a few things other kids didn’t do…lol…we’d catch lightening bugs, made animals out of Maypops, ( thanks Penni for reminding me of these) have you ever spent hours making your own toys to play with. We had a whole farm yard full of maypop cows…lol…as much fun as making clover necklaces….
Granny had an old Tom Turkey, Oh my he loved to strut and let everybody know who was boss… that barn yard was his, hey that was fine with me, he could have the barn yard, but he decided he wanted the whole 90 acres along with front and back yards with the front lane thrown in to boot....we called him Demon and man that sucker would make the Devil himself run for cover, he was bad, mean, evil, sneaky and cunning Even Granddaddy’s old English Bull dog that loved to hunt snakes ran for dear life from this thing, he was huge, he had to stand 7 feet tall, his eyes were red and his talons were like switch blade knives, and a good 12 inches long, You walk outside the safety of the front yard and you’d hear those wings flapping and those giant feet stomping the ground , have you ever hear a turkey stomp the ground, not a pretty sound.... sounded like war drums, boom, boom, boom, you wasn’t sure if it was Tom beating the ground or just your heart beating from fear and your life would flash before your eyes and the first words you’d scream was OH CRAP RUN-N-N-N-N-N-N and you could hear the ping of those talons popping out like a switch blade knife and cold chills went up your spine…all you could do was run for the picnic table in the front lane and pray you made it before he did…I still carry scares on the back of my legs were I didn’t run fast enough…Dean’s theory was all she had to do was out run me…this was one bad dude, the only person he didn’t scare was Granny and that was probably cause she was as mean as he was…now when I said his eyes were red, I wasn’t joking, he was solid white with beady red eyes, first Albino Turkey I ever saw. Granny had to keep him locked up in a stale next to the corn crib and when you had to go in the corn crib to get some corn to feed the pigs you better make sure you didn’t get close to the left wall cause he was going to get you with them switch blade claws, through a crack in the boards.
He was so sneaky, we would ease outside and look for him, ahhh, he’s nowhere to be seen, breathing a sigh, thinking he’s locked up, lets go play and when you got just far enough away from the front porch to not have a snowballs change in heck to make it back to the door, he’d ease out from behind the corner of the house and stomp those big feet and the chase was on….once we made it to the table, he'd strut around and around it with those tail feathers spread and gobbling all the while, like he was daring us to run, well now our Momma didn't raise no fools, we weren't going no where, neither was Spot who usually made it to the table with us. Granny would have to come shoo him away so we could get down, as long as she was there he wouldn't run us, oh but he wanted to you could feel those beady eyes staring, hoping she'd leave while we were still far enough away from the door... she should have baked him for Thanksgiving, but as ornery as he was he'd probably been to tough to eat or gave us all food poisoning....Lord I hated that Turkey and didn’t grieve one bit when he passed in his sleep, I couldn’t help but laugh, I wonder where the Devil was hiding when he came through Hell’s gate and started stomping those big feet….ping..ugh oh there goes them claws...lol...
Old Demon live for many years, too many. And he never mellowed with age if anything he got worse. Sometimes I wish we’d took a picture of him….Na, he’d probably scared the camera to death. This picture is of Momma and Dean on the old picnic table. LOL..Momma looks like she is hunting for Demon...
Next time The passing of a great man and sorrow at the farm house, we had to say good bye to our beloved friends.
Growing up we had a rooster who was a mean ol' cuss. I was one of 12 (I'm in my late 20s, so it surprises people. We thougt if we stuck together we'd be find, but once he set his eyes on you there was nothing you could do, but hope someone else atracted his anger. I lasted for years and my dad would bow up to him when he'd go after one of the babies and he'd be locked up for a few days. Whew, those were the days!
ReplyDeleteYikes! That thing should have been shot, and boiled till his meat fell off the bone!
ReplyDeleteWhat a whirling dervish of devil with feathers!
Ping....oh I shudder just thinking about the ping! Egad, how did you survive that childhood of yours, woman?
What a cool story!!! You sure better write a book - oh what a best seller that would be!
ReplyDeleteMolly you just get funnier and funnier. Oh, I have laughed till I cried. Ol' Demon was a HORRIBLE creature, I know, but the way you write I have to kind of like him, anything that ornery is fun to read about but I know he wasn't funny at the time.
ReplyDeleteDean's theory of just having to outrun YOU was MEAN! Bad Dean! You poor thing! As they say, "Devil take the hindmost" and that was you, running your little heart out!!!
Me again ... Yes we are at Fort Polk. We got here is 2004 and have done a 12-month and 15-month deployment as well as countless "stateside deployments" for training. I really love the life save for the deployments of course. We are really excited to be going to Ga and I can't wait to start a new chapter!
ReplyDeleteHow funny! I downloaded the picture of mama and granny... I have never seen that one. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful stories! Love ya!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were growing up in Wis. we had geese and boy could they peck us. And they too could run. But we had fun watching our cousins when they came over and the geese would have someone new to terrorize! Thanks for letting me remember.
ReplyDelete