I decided I have made you wait long enough. I'll tell the story of chain foot. If you are family or friends you have probably already heard this story as it is one of my favorite growing up on a farm stories. Remember, I was probably four when this happened, so I'm telling it 30 years later (read I don't remember all the details) and from a four year olds perspective.
Chain Foot was our pet chicken for a short while. She lived at my grandparents house. No one intended to have a pet chicken. You see Chain Foot found us. She some how got her foot caught on a chain on a truck (this is where I'm really unclear and don't remember the details so bear with me) coming from another city about 7 miles away. She got rescued at my grandmother's. Me, my sister and two cousins thought the chicken was the coolest thing ever. So we decided we should keep her and that she needed a name. Low and behold Chain Foot seemed to be the perfect name.
Now I'm not sure why my grandparents agreed to keep the chicken. They had raised chickens and had an egg delivery business several years earlier but didn't currently have any chickens. And they weren't the type to indulge their grandchildren. So I can't say why we got to keep her.
Of course we thought she was the best pet ever and she would follow us around like a dog would and I guess let us play with her. I don't know how long we had Chain Foot. I'm guessing a couple of weeks to a month, maybe two months tops.
So my family has a tradition that everyone goes to Granny and Papa's every Sunday for Sunday Lunch. So one Sunday we go to Granny's and she had fixed one of all the kids favorites! Chicken and Dumplings! Yum! We all loved chicken and dumplings. So we all ate with our usual kid gusto and after dessert went outside to play. Unfortunately we couldn't find Chain Foot and wanted to play with her. So we got the bright idea to go ask Granny if she knew where Chain Foot was. Granny's response, "You ate 'em for lunch!"
Yes ladies and gentlemen, Granny killed Chain Foot and cooked her up and served her for lunch! Yes, tears ensued. We were very, very sad. And also quite mad that Granny would kill our beloved pet. Apparently Chain Foot was making a mess in Granny's flower gardens and she got tired of it. So off with the chicken's head!
All of the kids refused to eat chicken and dumplings for so long that Granny quit making them. In fact, I heard that she actually made them last weekend and my sister still wouldn't eat them because they "might be someone she knew!" And to this day I'll only eat chicken and dumplings I make, and I've only ever made them once.
So if you have a pet chicken you better watch out or it may end up being lunch!
Jenn
PS Does it surprise you to learn that I named my daughter after a chicken killer?
Some clarifications (as I remember...also 30 years later). The name "Chain Foot" was because the chicken's foot (I think) was caught in a chain on the truck.
ReplyDeleteGranny kept the chicken in order to get the eggs, and the minute the chicken quit laying, she would be a "goner".
For awhile the chicken laid eggs in the flower bed and the also scratched in the flower bed, which came close to negating any positive benefits of the egg-laying. Then Granny quit finding any eggs.
Surprise, surprise, a few days after having Chain Food for lunch, granny found a nest full of eggs, she had just changed locations!! Poor Chain Foot.
Oh boy, do I remember Chain Foot... I still tell that story to this day.... and I remember Granny finding those eggs a few days later... the truck was coming to pick up a cow to slaughter and Chain Foot had gotten caught in the chain of the truck at the farm he stopped at before he got to our's....And yes, the trauma of eating your pet chicken, it was awful, years before I would eat them again.... what do you expect from people who name their cows before we send them to be butchered.... which reminds me, do you remember "Bill-y" the pet calf??? And teepees in the cow pasture with tobacco sticks and our "mankies"? What about "Vivian"?
ReplyDeleteOh, wow I'd have a hard time eating chicken 'n' dumplings too after that and I LOVE them. Thanks for the story because you certainly had me curious.
ReplyDeleteOh my. I am still upset about it to this day. The one thing that stands out in my mind about chain foot is that we dressed her up in babydoll clothes, carried her on our hip and fed her cotton candy. She really did let us play with her.
ReplyDeleteTracy forgot my favorite, playing with June bugs. Remember Charlie anyone?
That is just classic!
ReplyDelete