Chick-O-Stick

This is still on an egg theme, but today the chicks in Mrs. Galloway's 4th grade class are hatching. My daughter tells me that they were starting to peck holes in their shells yesterday, so there is a good chance they'll get out today. Have I even seen an actual baby chick in real life? I'm not sure I have.

When I was a kid, we ate this weird candy that I never understood, but I liked it anyway. It was called "Chick-O-Stick." For a while, I thought it might actually have chicken in it. I never got that it was made from peanuts. I took the name literally. I think there was a picture of a chick on it. I googled Chick-O-Stick, and found that they are still being made by the Atkinson Candy company in Lufkin, Texas. Now they offer a sugar-free version, and they offer Chick-O-Stick nuggets.But they don't call them Chick-O-Nuggets. Their website says they are "Texas-proud," but their candy is sold "all over the world." Unfortunately, they've changed the package for Chick-O-Sticks so now it is orange and boring. (I prefer the old yellow and red design pictured here). I can't verify that there was a chick on it.

Around the time that I was eating Chick-O-Sticks (they sold for 5 cents at the swimming pool), I had a vivid dream that I remember clearly to this day. In the dream I looked down and saw that I had the body of a grocery store chicken. Like a whole fryer, with the skin all slippery and with drumsticks where my legs should be. I was carrying a metal lunchbox, because I had to go to school. And I was horrified that I had to be seen with the body of a chicken. Oh, the relief of waking from that dream!

I don't know if it was because of the dream, but throughout my adult life I've avoided preparing whole chickens. Turkeys aren't the same, don't ask me why. Maybe it's because I didn't have a dream about having a turkey body. But I've always been happy to leave the major chicken work to others. I may pass through this life without ever making a really good chicken soup. I like my poultry boneless and skinless, cut up into pieces. So I have to laugh at this picture of Meryl Streep, elbow deep in whole chickens, as she plays Julia Child in an upcoming movie. Just reading about the movie makes me hungry - but not for chicken.

One more thing, as an aside---Don't go to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede in Branson, Missouri. They will give you a whole chicken to eat, and there is nothing you can do about it. They give every man, woman and child who enters an entire chicken on a plate. But they don't give you a fork. I'm serious. I've never been there, but I heard all about it.