Almost Turkey Time

Why did the two turkeys cross the road? Because it was the ‘possums day off. Last week, two turkeys were seen casually strolling across Hwy. 11 knowing that legal turkey hunting season is not until March and they had plenty of time. On the other hand, their cousins, the farm raised turkeys, are running for their lives as they are readied to be the special guests as our national eating frenzy begins in earnest, the last Thursday of November on Thanksgiving Day.

Which came first the country of Turkey or the very large bird that graces our Thanksgiving table? We will never know, but the country of Turkey is one of the oldest permanently inhabited regions in the world and in an ancient language, the people who resided there were known as Turks. The “key” portion of the name means “land of”, “Land of the Turks”.

From various unreliable sources, the bird, turkey, got this name from the British who bought the birds off merchant ships from the country of Turkey who transported the birds from their native North America. Talk about going ‘round your elbow to get to your thumb.

Benjamin Franklin wanted the native turkey as our national bird.

Shakespeare mentioned the turkey in one of his plays, “12th Night”. So if we can rely on some unreliable sources for all this kind of information, the country Turkey was in a round about way responsible for the name of our native bird, turkey.

Are there turkeys in Turkey? That burning question will have to be answered by learned scholars as those unreliable sources used previously debate the issue. One thing we do know there are a lot of turkeys, wild ones for sure, in Jasper County, Georgia.

Gobble, Gobble…