Wild Turkeys

The commute this morning was a bear.  It took over an hour for a drive of about 14 miles--almost entirely on superhighway.  The congestion was such that I had multiple opportunities to listen to the traffic report on the all news all the time station so that I could be informed "on the threes" that I was in a traffic jam.  I think the expression the helicopter reporter used--every ten minutes--was that the pike was "a mess."   The journey made me think wishfully about living in rural America and the joys of watching cows as I comfortably took country roads to work.  When I entered the office, I mentioned the congestion and my thoughts about the desirability of country life. My office neighbor wailed. "Don't do it.  I been there. There are rednecks."

As I drove, in addition to the radio reporter reminding me that I was and would continue to be aggravated, I heard the news stories that recur on the newswheel.  One story was about a meeting that is to be held in Brookline tonight on the subject of wild turkeys.  Brookline is a well heeled suburb of Boston which, peculiarly, is actually within the city.  You can drive out of Boston going west, go into Brookline, and then continue west and find yourself in Boston again for several miles before you reach the suburbs that are beyond the city limits.  Brookline has sections that are drop dead stunning and others that look like any old place but enjoy an excellent school system and very high real estate values.

Apparently, Brookline,  has a problem with wild turkeys.  Brookline is not the only area around here who has seen these birds. A few years ago, I looked out my window in Waltham--miles west of Brookline--and saw a parade of wild turkeys walking along the front yard. Since then, it has become not uncommon to see such a flock often strutting in a family line with the momma up front and the brood obediently one by one behind her.  The march reminds me of the cover of Make Way for Ducklings, except they are not ducks, but turkeys.  The turkeys have not bothered anyone, they just go about their business such as it may be, walking in the backyard and then I guess to the woods and park which is behind our dwelling.

The news story about the turkeys that I heard at least four times this morning was that the people in Brookline were gathering to deal with the "problem." It seems as if the wild turkeys are attacking the Brookline-ites and something has to be done about it.

If this is so, then the Brookline turkeys are substantively different than their Waltham cousins who are docile and mind their own business.  My hunch is that the Brookline turkeys are just like the Waltham turkeys.

I'm thinking that at the same time that the good citizens of Brookline are meeting to discuss the turkey problem, the turkeys are meeting to discuss the problem with the citizens of Brookline.   My sense is that the issue of who are the turkeys might be one to contemplate.

In the country you might have rednecks. In the city, you might have wild turkeys.