"Thanksgiving and the Old Hen"
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When you grow up on a farm, there is a lot you learn about growing crops and taking care of live stock. Most any farmer, no matter what kind of crop he raises, has a milk cow or two, and usually a few hogs, and of course a henhouse full of chickens. That's kinda the way it was down at the old farm in Nankipooh when I was a young-un. Part of my job was milking the cow, and gathering the eggs. Course most of the time Grandma Biggers took care of those things, but I was the backup, when I wasn't totin in firewood, and totin out the ashes.
We had a couple of dozen chickens, but the queen of the henhouse was Old Hen, who was pretty much past her egg laying days, but was still the queen of the roost. Old Hen took her status pretty seriously too, and she didn't take nothing off nobody, or no critter neither. Even our dog and our cat was scared of her, cause she'd come right for you, if you crossed her path with the wrong look in your eyes. I am reminded of one winter during this time that it got so cold in Nankipooh that almost everything froze over during the night, when it went down to about seven or eight degrees, which was about the coldest morning I can remember in Nankipooh.
Well, I got up that morning and was worried about my dog cause he was outside, and even though he had a dog house full of pine straw, it was mighty cold. I went outside to check on him when the sun came up, and there he was all snuggled up in the pine straw, and right next to him was our cat, and I'll be darned, but in between the two of them, warm as toast, was Old Hen. Now, I ain't seen nothing like that before or since. Imagine that, a dog, a cat, and a chicken all huddled up together trying to stay warm. It seems to me that if the three of them could get through a cold winter night together, then them Skunks and Polecats up in DC could get along together a little better than they do, just to get the country through some of these cold winter nights.
A couple of years later, we were all sitting down together at the Biggers farm for our big Thanksgiving dinner, and as usual I could hardly wait, because I always did love Grandma's turkey and dressing, along with all the trimmings. Well this year the turkey seemed a might small, and I said something about it, and Grandpa said, "Well times have been a little hard lately, so this year we are having chicken instead of turkey." Well it was a little disappointing, but I understood, and besides, I like roasted chicken too. About then Grandpa starts to carve up the bird, and he seems to be having some trouble, and then he says, "I'm afraid this old bird is going to be pretty tough!" And then it hit me! "You ain't fixing to eat Old Hen are You?", I said. Grandpa says, "You just be quite and eat your dinner." "I ain't eating Old Hen", I said, and I got up and run out of the dining room without eating a bite of that Thanksgiving Dinner.
When I look back on it, that was about the worst Thanksgiving that I can remember, but it taught me something about life. You see, Old Hen wasn't much good at being a chicken anymore. She couldn't lay eggs anymore, and she was too mean to be a good friend, and she was too tough to eat, but I still loved her. Sometimes the best things in life ain't all young and pretty, or bright and shinny, but Old Hen had character, and I not only loved her, but I had a lot of respect for her too. You know, I have lived long enough on this old earth, to have found a few people like that along the way, and I am a richer man for seeing them for what they are, and I like to call them my friend.
"Now that's the way I see it, and you can tell'em I said so."
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