Talkin Turkey

In honor of April fools day I am reminded of a story that grandma told me about a field hand that worked for her father in law.  John Davenport.  Grandma and her husband Rollie lived and worked on the family ranch up in the hills between Sabinal and Con Can , Texas .  Grandma said that often times the men would come in from the field at dinner time and eat and rest a bit in the heat of the day. After a while they would put their hats back on and head out to finish working the fields.  Grandpa had a field hand named ole Ben that lived and worked on the ranch and was almost like one of the family. Ole Ben was a prolific Tobacco chewer.

In fact he was a thrifty fellow and was known to chew the same chaw for days before spitting it out and starting a new chew.

It was his habit to come in at noon for dinner with the rest of the men and take the chaw out of his mouth and place it on the rafter above his head just as he would step through the back door into the screened in back porch of the house.  Now Grandpa Rollie has seven brothers and at this time several of them were young teen boys.  Grandma used to say those brothers were as sneaky and mischievous as they came. Some times down right mean as a snakes she would say, and those boys constantly were bedeviling ole Ben.  Now one day the men came in for dinner as was their custom and ole Ben came right along with them and like always set his chew in the usual place on the rafter.  Those boys waited until Ben was washing up and they snuck out the front door, ran around to the back and crept up to the rafter and got that chaw.  They ran out back to the Turkey yard and squatted down and rubbed that chew in the Turkey droppings on the floor of the pen.  Then they crept back into the back porch and put the chew back on its perch on the rafter just as it was before.  Mrs. Davenport called those boys to wash up and sit down and finally after all was settled they said grace and began to eat.  Those boys could hardly contain their giggles as they waited patiently through the mealtime and short siesta that followed and finally heard the usual “Wep I guess we better get back out there and hoe da row.” Ole Ben got up and put on his hat and walked out to the back porch, reached up with one hand and grabbed his chaw and popped it in his mouth like always.  He walked a few steps off the porch and stopped.  He shifted that chaw from one side and then the other and gave a quizzical look.  Then he just shrugged and said “guess it’s about time to change brands!” He proceeded on his way to the field, never breaking stride. Those boys just rolled with laughter as Ole Ben went back to the field.