Item # 1617
(See story below)

A true story as told by Robert Askew (aka Bubba) . . . 
     Growing up in Memphis, TN we were very poor and did not have many things to play with.  Things changed in 1946 when our best hen Sue hatched some baby chicks.  I played with them all the time.  The biggest chick, which I named Big Red, would follow me around the yard all the time.  I started whistling and he would come.  Big Red would ride on my should and eat out of my hand.  One day he followed me into our house which caused my mother to give me one of the worst whippings I ever had.  As I look back on it now, I think that was the beginning and ending of Big Red and me.  We were caught a few more times in the house with more whippings following. When I was 6 years old, I came in from the field and whistled for Big Red, but he didn't come.  I looked everywhere but couldn't find him.  I went through the back door into the kitchen and there was what was left of Big Red on the dinner table.  So since that fateful day in 1947, in honor of Big Red, I refuse to eat chicken.  I LOVE YOU BIG RED.   -Bubba