Attribution: Reuben R. Sallows, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, does his best to keep the keeper from stepping into the bottomless quicksand of life but was unable to deter him from preoccupation with the reality that in order for there to be a traditional Thanksgiving feast somebody has to kill a turkey.
In this age of hamburger coming from plastic packages with no cow- killing having been involved, the keeper leads the parade back to his rural growing-up days when it was the routine duty, usually for the man of the house, to catch a turkey or chicken, stretch its neck out across a chopping block and use a sharp axe to chop its head off. Young spectators like the keeper were then entertained by the headless bird’s brief last dance. He even remembers the two nails on top of the chopping block positioned to hold the holiday bird’s head and stretched out neck.
The question of the day is: how many of today’s dads and grandpas would have what it takes to insure a successful holiday if they had to chop the head off the live centerpiece to get the festivities started?
While the keeper thinks he could do it depending on how hungry he was at the time, he remembers that if a grandpa was not around to do the head chop back in his day, a grandma did it.
Those were some women! Like Phyllis who says she could maybe do the head chop but she wouldn’t like it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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