Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 24, 1994 TAG: 9411250026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HUDDLESTON LENGTH: Medium
It weighs more than 1,500 pounds and has a tail that's 12 feet wide, a wattle that's 41/2 feet long.
But it won't be basted, and hunters better not shoot it, says the bird's owner, Harold Allen of Bedford County.
Its body is a bale of hay.
Its skin is painted bubble-wrap.
Its tail is plywood.
Allen, who owns a construction business, built the bird in his spare time this month. It sits in front of Shoreline Realty and Carolyn's Carousel Gift Shop on Virginia 608 near Smith Mountain Lake, staring passers-by in the face with its light-bulb eye.
"He's a right good-sized turkey," said Allen, who has placed a sign in front of the bird that reads: "THIS IS A TURKEY. DON'T SHOOT."
Is Allen really concerned that somebody might take a pot shot at his feathered friend?
"I've had two hunters ask me about it already. It's hunting season. I know one of them was serious."
The turkey has its share of visitors, said Geri Johnson, who works for Shoreline Realty and faces the back end of the creation from her desk.
On Wednesday, 4-year-old Kathryne Bemis and her mother, Lynne, stopped by to shoot ... a picture of the bird.
"It's super neat," said mother as daughter petted bubble wrap.
So why did Allen decide to construct a turkey?
Aha!
A promotional gimmick, right?
Wrong.
Or maybe Allen wanted to drive home a point: that Thanksgiving is getting lost in the early Christmas shopping promotions.
That's true, he said, but not the reason.
"It's interesting, and I like interesting things," Allen offered, no words minced.
The turkey will roost on Virginia 608 until the snowman comes, he said.
"That's what they want me to build next."
by CNB