An American Story

My Cousin Mary was visiting on Saturday. Our county sponsors a yearly bike ride called the Gran Fondo that draws nearly 8,000 people from all over the world; and we hold our annual family reunion around that event. Most of us ride bikes. At dinner Cousin Mary, who lives somewhat rustically on the edge of a national forest in Orange County, retold the turkey story. This is, unfortunately, a true story. Her husband, a retired fire fighter, is a nice guy, very handy with tools, and one of a kind.  He sometimes feeds the abundant wild life and so on, but some years back he decided to raise turkeys for food. A few weeks later he was carrying a young turkey around and accidentally dropped it, breaking its leg. After some thought, he decided that the leg was not going to mend, so he cut it off and  replaced it with a wooden leg he made from Popsicle sticks. As you might suspect, this story does not end well. The next morning the turkey was found drowned in an inch of water.  Mary claims it was suicide.