Not long ago, I was in a fast food restaurant standing behind a young boy who ordered chicken nuggets. The lad was perhaps 12-years old. I wondered if he truly thought that 'nuggets' were a part of the chicken anatomy. American families don't raise chickens anymore. If they did that boy would know that nuggets are 'scrap meat' from a chicken.
A few years back, I watched a documentary about 'bird flu' and saw a Southeast Asian country with chickens roaming free all around people's yards. Somebody in my company said, "Boy, you can sure tell that's a third world country." Shucks, I was thinking how much the scene reminded me of my 1940's Washington Park (East St. Louis) neighborhood when most folks had chicken coops. We raised chickens! Chickens called 'layers,' which produced eggs and chickens called 'fryers' for eating.
I hated that morning egg-collecting chore. Hens didn't particularly care for you taken their kids...this was certainly an oxymoron moment regarding a woman's choice v. anti-abortion. Talk about a conflict! Raising chickens was a education for a youngster. You soon learn that chickens are the nastiest domesticated animal. And...woe betide the weak chicken in a chicken-pen. Pigs are cleaner.
Remember now that back in the 1940's about 50% of Americans were in church Sunday mornings and most were at grandma's house for fried-chicken dinner afterward. That chicken didn't just show up on your plate of its own doing. Nope. Saturday afternoon was chicken butchering time. It was interesting noting various chicken-decapitation choices of my family members. There was the 'ringer,' the 'footstep-puller' and the 'hatchet guy.' Personally, I never participated in that maneuver or the scalding-water-feather plucking job. I was worn out by that time trying to keep my dog away from retrieving one of those headless-birds flopping across the backyard.
I try not to think of those days when eating chicken-noodle soup and my favorite part of the chicken is NOT nuggets nor the nipple-less Breasts...I'm a 'leg man.'
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