Above / Appreciate the power of Thanksgiving with family, friends and neighbors. The descendants of the Paul and Gertrude Mitchell have been gathering together to count their blessings since the days the family all fit in the dining room of their farm in Battle Ground, Indiana. (Mitchell Family Photo 1950)
UPDATE, 7PM Nov. 24, 2016 / At age 18, Aunt Ruthie is pictured in the vintage photo above at the dining room table, just to the right of Grandma Mitchell and next to Uncle Phil, then 13.
Today, just prior to Uncle Phil’s blessing before 43 family members and guests sat down for Thanksgiving dinner, Aunt Ruthie presented another reading from the newsletter put out by a senior organization to which she belongs.
Here’s what she said while everyone listened:
Politician in the Making
Homer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens) called “pullets,” and 10 roosters to fertilize the eggs. He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.
Keeping records took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so he could tell from a distance which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.
Homer’s favorite rooster, Old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but one morning he noticed Old Butch’s bell hadn’t rung at all. When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters in pursuit, could run for cover.
To Homer’s amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak so it couldn’t ring.
He’d sneak up on a pullet, do his job and approach the next one. Homer was so proud of Old Butch, he entered him in the County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The result was the judges not only awarded Old Butch the No-Bell Piece Prize, but they also awarded him the Pullet-surprise as well.
Clearly Old Butch was a politician in the making.
Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet be being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren’t paying attention.
Vote carefully this year… the bells are not always audible.
—Author Unknown
Previous Post / In 2015, on the way from Naperville to Lafayette, Indiana, for Thanksgiving dinner with the Mitchell clan, the guy on the radio was hosting a Q & A with Robert Kauffman, owner of the Ho-Ka Turkey Farm, located in Waterman, Illinois.
On the subject of turkey stupidity, the radio host asked, “Will a turkey look up when it rains and drown?”
According to Kauffman, believe it or not, otherwise intelligent people actually believe that if a turkey looks up in the rain it will drown.
“However, we raise thousands of turkeys outside,” Kauffman said. “And we’ve never lost one to drowning in the rain.”
And Kauffman should know. Kauffman raises 70,000 turkeys annually at Ho-Ka Turkey farm in DeKalb County, the largest turkey farm in Illinois.
In 1933, Robert’s father, Howard, started the farm with a flock of 300 turkeys. He came up with the name “Ho-Ka” by using the first two letters of his first and last names.
Today the Ho-Ka Turkey Farm is among the last remaining independent family-owned-and-operated turkey farms in the country.
The Ho-Ka way of raising turkeys is why Naperville’s independently-owned markets, Casey’s Foods and Kreger’s Brat and Sausage Haus, are two local enterprises where folks can order fresh Ho-Ka turkeys for the holidays.
Mitchell Thanksgiving first reading about turkeys
Above / Surrounded by family and friends, Ruth Weekley read a whimsical poem through the eyes of a turkey at the Mitchell family reunion on Thanksgiving Day 2015.
Moving right along off I-65 to the Mitchell Family Reunion at Ross Camp, this year’s entertainment was provided, in part, by Ruth Weekley as she lamented with good humor about the life of a turkey being prepared for the holidays.
Pardon us for printing the poem here!
Black November… A Turkey’s Horror Story
When I was a young turkey, new to the coop,
My big brother Mike took me out on the stoop,
Then he sat me down, and he spoke real slow,
And he told me there was something that I had to know;
His look and his tone I will always remember,
When he told me of the horrors of … Black November;
“Come about August, now listen to me,
Each day you’ll be thick, where once you were thin,
And you’ll grow a big rubbery thing under your chin.
“And then one morning, when you’re warm in your bed,
In’ll burst the farmer’s wife, and hack off your head;
“Then she’ll pluck out all your feathers so you’re bald and pink,
And scoop out all your insides and leave you laying in the sink,
“And then comes the worst part” he said not bluffing,
“She’ll spread your cheeks and pack your rear with stuffing.”
Well, the rest of his words were too grim to repeat,
I sat on the stoop like a winged piece of meat,
And decided on the spot that to avoid being cooked,
I’d have to lay low and remain overlooked;
I began a new diet of nuts and granola,
High-roughage salads, juice and diet cola,
And as they ate pastries, chocolates and crepes,
I stayed in my room doing Jane Fonda tapes,
I maintained my weight of two pounds and a half,
And tried not to notice when the bigger birds laughed;
But ’twas I who was laughing, under my breath,
As they chomped and they chewed, ever closer to death;
And sure enough when Black November rolled around,
I was the last turkey left in the entire compound;
So now I’m a pet in the farmer’s wife’s lap;
I haven’t a worry, so I eat and I nap,
She held me today, while sewing and humming,
And smiled at me and said, “Christmas is coming…”
—Author Unknown
—Recited by Ruth Weekley at Ross Camp, Mitchell Family Thanksgiving, November 26, 2015
More words for November about turkeys…
According to legend and lore, Ben Franklin favored the turkey as the national bird compared to the bald eagle, preferred by Thomas Jefferson.
In a letter written by Franklin in 1784 to his daughter, Sally, he wrote, “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character […] in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America.”
Furthermore, myth has it that the “Tom Turkey” was given its name by Franklin. When the turkey lost the national ranking to the bald eagle by one vote, Franklin nicknamed the male turkey after Thomas Jefferson—or so the story goes.
Many families are grateful the traditional Thanksgiving turkey is the biggest food item purchased all year. Few meals are more memorable than the Thanksgiving feast, so for the sake of abundance always plan on one pound of raw turkey for each guest. That way, you’ll have plenty of turkey for dinner; plus, plenty of leftovers. Also be mindful that most roasting pans and conventional ovens cannot handle more than a 30-pound turkey.
If the only prayer you said in your whole life were “thank you,” that would be enough.
–Meister Eckhart, German Philosopher (1260-1328)
To wrap up Thanksgiving weekend, the Little Friends Parade of Lights with an enormous display of community spirit steps off at 6PM Sun., Nov. 27, 2016, in downtown Naperville.
Happy Thanksgiving!
