Bring Many Names
ACC’s Lone Turkey
“Bring Many Names” is the title of a familiar hymn. Well, the “Lone ACC Turkey” has acquired many names during its sojourn at the Church. The turkey who has been hanging around the patio, bushes and sidewalk to examine your hub caps is probably familiar to many of you. I’ve been startled more than once when I walked around the car to the sidewalk hearing a soft clucking sound, to find the turkey staring at itself in my hubcap.
Notice, I’m not using the pronouns she or he for a reason. We don’t really know for sure. For some time, I have called her “Gertrude” affectionately while asking her to move on. That was until Sara Laferte informed me that “she” had a beard so was really a “he”. The KNS preschoolers have named him Clovis so they think it’s a boy. Sara said she’d seen him display his tail feathers, and someone posting on the Next Door app saw him display at a hubcap, obviously thinking there was a threat approaching through that shiny round doorway. “Watch out buddy! Stay clear of me!” Hens don’t display. Many of us wondered why the “Lone Turkey of Arlington” was alone: Lost? Dismissed from the gang?
In the meantime, people have been assigning it various names, depending upon their theory of the bird’s sex. Ruth has been calling her “Arlys the Arlington Turkey”. Someone named it “Narcissis”. One woman said she’d named him “Donnie” after the world’s biggest narcissist. And then there have been “Car-Bird” (by a boy on his way to school), Phillip, Steven, and Tom.
Ruth recently sent me a link to Next Door, titled Love is in the Air, with the following picture. Hmmm, which one is OUR turkey? Have we not all been seeing the same one? Have a careful look. A tom looks much like a hen when he is not displaying. So, which of these two turkeys is the LONE Arlington Turkey?
By the way, one woman on Next Door shared that she had been walking some time ago near the Youth Hut and heard two turkeys talking to each other from the trees. Maybe we’ve been seeing two different turkeys separately. Nate suggests that maybe they’ll go on a honeymoon while we replace the sidewalk, so they won’t walk in the newly poured cement.
Bring many names, beautiful and good
Hail and Hosanna,