Pink and purple chickies

[susandennis]

Today in the Safeway there were a couple of tween-aged girls squealing over some little yellow chickens that make baby chicken sounds when you petted their backs.

It totally took me back to Thuway Shopping Center - Winston-Salem's only shopping center in the 50's.  There on the big strip mall sidewalk in front of Woolworths they would sell live chicks and baby bunnies in the weeks before Easter.

Real live baby chickens and real live baby bunnies.

The chicks were died yellow and pink and purple and green and baby blue.  Every kid wanted one.  The bunnies weren't nearly as coveted and I'm not sure why.

My Mom rarely let us get any not because of some high minded animal rights thing but because she didn't want to fuck with chicken shit in the house.  But one year she relented.  I have no idea why.  I got a blue one.

It was fun for a day.  It died in a week.  Now, of course, it's horrifying to even consider and cruel and mean and ridiculous not to mention unimaginable but then it was an annual thing.  I remember really really really wanting one the next year but by then Mom was back on her no chicken shit kick.

They were a pre-Easter staple at the Thruway Woolworths at  least until I left for college in 1967.

Comments

[zimzat.livejournal.com]

A local animal and crop type store in my hometown would have the dyed chicks as well on the weeks before Easter as well. My dad wouldn't let us get regular pets (e.g. dogs and cats) because they weren't productive, but chickens were a different story because they laid eggs or could be cooked and eaten.

The store admitted most wouldn't last more than a few weeks. They had other chicks for sell that weren't colored and more likely to grow up. We also got some of those as well. And my dad would take some chicken eggs to hatch and grow up. Chickens were a big part of our family life for several years.

[susandennis]

wow. that's a way better story than mine. it's very cool to know that at least some easter chicks made good!