THE MOUNTAIN STORYTELLER
the Mountain Storyteller
Aunt Mamie's Thanksgiving Turkey
By Sally S. King
Aunt Mamie walked all the way down past the store to old Mr. Grover’s house one Saturday morning in September with a fifty cent piece in the pocket of her house dress. She rang the bell that hung beside the gate in the picket fence of his yard and went inside.
“I need me a turkey….a poult…a nice little poult…for Thanksgiving”. She told him and he stood there a moment, rubbing his whiskers thinking about what a good cook Mamie was and pointed toward a flock of hens with their little poults nearby. “Pick you out one o’them….they’s good eatin if’n you fatten ‘em up right…”. He said with a wink. So Aunt Mamie strolled over near the flock of hens and poult’s and took off on a chase until she had cornered one of the little things and scooped it up into her apron. She handed him the fifty cent piece and headed out the gate and back home.
Now, Aunt Mamie named all of her animals, and the little poult was no different. She held the little turkey in her hands and looked into her beady little eyes and said, " I'll name you Ansie”.
She put Ansie in the pen with Peck and Pat, her two Rhode Island Red’s, and their chicks for a time until October came and Ansie outgrew her surrogate family and the pen and took to roaming the yard with Scruff, Mamie’s old Rat Terrier. They would rest together in the shade of the Chestnut tree out front of the house. Scruff would lay on his back and Ansie would gently peck and preen him of all his fleas.
At night, Ansie would roost up in the rafters above Mamie’s bed and make little sounds to Mamie as she was falling asleep and the bond between them grew.
Blackie, that old one-eyed tom cat of Mamie’s was the only one that had it in for Ansie. Most days, he would wait in the dark shade under the porch and pounce on her as she strutted by. Ansie lost a couple of feathers most times but Blackie had lost that eye and didn’t try so hard to get her anymore. Anyway, she was twice his size.
Halloween came and there was mischief about as the neighborhood children came out for trick or treat. Aunt Mamie had given away all the peppermint she had and when the Baker boys came and tried to trick her, Ansie chased them out the gate and halfway down the road to the cemetery. Ansie could run pretty durn fast. She would stick out her head and fluff herself up and make a gurgling sound when she was upset.
The first of November, Aunt Mamie dug up the last of the sweet potatoes and a big batch of turnips and Ansie dug right along with her with first one foot and then the other.
Mamie brought in wood for the first fire the middle of the month and they all sat around the hearth basking in it’s warmth while Mamie shelled pecans for the pie she would bake.
Thanksgiving dawned bright and sunny and Mamie had the woodstove blazing. The oven was full of pumpkin and pecan pies, cornbread and a sweet potato casserole, there was chicken boiling on the stove for dressing and she busily mixed the cranberries with little slivers of pecans.
The table was set with her best dishes and there was a chair for everyone and soon, she heard the sounds of them arriving outside and they began coming in the door.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” Mamie called out as they filed in bearing cakes and pies and other dishes of food into the aromatic kitchen and old Mr. Grover arrived with a bowl of shelled nuts.
Soon the table was groaning under all that food and Mamie rang the little bell she kept beside the door and called them to eat. They all took their seats and Mamie sat down at the head of the table. They all held hands and said a prayer and then someone noticed the empty chair and asked “Who else is here?” and Mamie clapped her hands and called: “Ansie!”
In she strutted, and with a flourish of her wings and a turn of her head with that little orange bandana around her neck, she hopped up into the chair beside Mamie as Mr. Grover let out a gasp. There was a little plate set for her with corn and oats on it and she began to peck at the food.
“I told you I needed a turkey for Thanksgiving!” Mamie Chuckled “And here she is!” "Now, eat up! It's gettin' cold."LV
