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Acknowledgments
First, a big thank you to the residents of Jackson, Lawrence, and Washington Counties in the hilly—“knobby,” as we Hoosiers say—part of southern Indiana. Medora, Indiana, is my hometown, and I can assure you that no better folk exist anywhere. Go Hornets!
Writing this book caused me to stop and reflect on the importance of chickens in my life and in the lives of rural Americans. My mama, June, who sadly passed away while I was working on this book, was born on a small watermelon farm on Sand Lane, between Brownstown and Vallonia, Indiana. Her first job, during the Depression, was chasing down chickens and beheading them for a male cousin who was too squeamish to do the dirty deed. I like thinking of Mama now as running in the warm summer sand, down by the river, barefoot, gone home at long last, as my people say, to the places and people that she loved the most.
There are a lot of chickens in this book. My apologies if I did not get all my chicken facts straight. A big part of this book comes from two places. First, a weeklong summer job I had in the spring of 1977 during the Easter egg rush at a huge chicken ranch in Southern Indiana. Honestly, I still have peculiar dreams about those 10,000 hens. It is likely that I have off-loaded some of my less pleasant memories to poor Veenie. My brother, Roger, and one of my brothers-in-law, Terry C. Smith, served longer stints in the home for 10,000 happy hens. I owe them both for their stories about life among the chickens. (Thanks guys!)
My oldest sister Ginger—yes, the lead chicken in this book is named after her—kept chickens for many years, as did her best friend, Melissa Horton, of Mitchell. I found their stories quite inspirational too. (Thanks for the laughs, gals.)
The Chickenlandia Mystery features one very real character: Dewey, the lead rooster. Dewey was a real fellow, but sad to say that during the writing of this book he got in a tussle with a possum while defending his ladies and has now gone to that great Chickenlandia in the sky. Strut proudly among the clouds, alongside my beautiful red-headed mama, dear Dewey.
Chickenlandia Mystery Page 21
