The Giant Chicken

This is written as a result to a few asking about my first weird habit from being tagged.

The Giant Chicken

In September 1981, another lifetime ago, I was driving headed eventually to Louisville, Kentucky for a few meetings with some coal miners and suppliers.With several mining associates in the Evansville, IN area I had planned to stop in that vacinity on the way to Louisville.

Still in the grips of a most upsetting divorce and wild court battles I had for the past few years married the business and dove deeply into it. With constant meetings and negotiations it was common to have buffet meals and drinks several times a day while conducting business. I had no idea (which I would admit) that I had been drinking excessively as many of the others were even tho there were obvious telltale signs
I should have noticed.

Driving from the St Louis area using the newly opened western leg of I-64 I was joyous and in good spirits to be headed east to visit with some coal suppliers to piece together enough
coal to be applied to my recently increased contract with Tennessee Valley Authority. The stops in Evansvile and Owensboro, KY (just across the Ohio River) were non-incidental as I resumed by trek to the final destination. A few miles east of the junction onto I-64 I was feeling good about the preliminary meetings and was anticipating my upcoming evening meetings. The soybean and corn fields buzzed by with an occassional oil cricket pump interrupting the flowing grain display my eyes had grown accustom to. The hum of the engine along with the tapes of the best choices of R&B music of the day allowed me to ride in pleasant sensual splender. I'm sure the scotch at lunch played a part in the mellowness I felt.

Off in the forward distance to my left I could barely make out an image stepping thru the fields of grain and as I rode closer to it I was dumbfounded by what I saw. This monstrocity of an image was about to step on me and my vehicle as it crossed the road way. The vehicle spun a total 360 degrees from sudden braking while cruising at high speed. Immediately, I jumped out of the car to see this GIANT CHICKEN  stepping across the fields headed in a southernly direction. With out
the slightest concern that I might have killed myself and others with the sudden braking which spun my car around facing west in the east bound lanes I discovered myself lingering in the gutters of the road straining to see this monster chicken.

After a few minutes I regained my composure and manipulated my car back on the road and proceeded on my journey.  Though it took a few minutes to recover from the rapid breathing and fast paced hear rate I had settled back into my traveling mode with music from the engine and tapes. As fate would have
it that damn chicken came into view in the corner of my right eye soaking wet as if it had walked across the river heading back to its roost. I had decided I would speed up a bit so as to make it past his path way before we met in the road. I sped up it seemed to keep pace with me. Suddenly one of his giant feet appeared to almost step on the car and I swerved to avoid it. I ended up crossing into the passing lane and as my tires came in contact with the gravel off the edge of the pavement the car spun around again.When I jumped out to see this chicken it had gone from view all together with no fading vision to watch.
It was simply gone.

This time my recovery took longer as I saw the possiblity of me killing and being killed with sudden braking action on a four lane highway. Heart racing and breathing rapidly I turned the music off and thought about what had just happened. Not once but twice. Reality nudged me to whisper, "buddy, you got troubles".There is no GIANT CHICKEN. There is NO giant chicken. Many questions rushed throught my head instantly.
Had I lost my mind? Was I having a nervous break down? Was I stressed and didn't know it? I sat there off the edge of the road for awhile thinking. I have to be alive to see my daughters grow up. They depend on me.Their mother had flaked out on her duties and didn't act like a mom until she wanted something. Or was in a mood to connive for the sake of it. Sitting there with myriad thoughts racing thru my mind
as to why that chicken appeared. Was there a reason I should know? Had "she" put a curse on me? Had I gone too far in my fighting the so called standards of society at that time?

None of the questions I was poundering answers to involved me directly. They all centered on others with me as if I were an onlooker peeping in from the outside. Knowing I had turned the music off a few minutes earlier I still wondered why it was quiet in the car when the thought hit me. Spencer, you are DRUNK! No giant chickens, no curses, no anything but you had been drinking too much and refused to admit it. Spencer, you are DRUNK! And your drunkeness damn near got you killed. You were doing exactly what you had been preaching against. Drunk driving. Dumb ass, you are drunk.

After a few minutes of facing my own realities it became apparent to me my breathing had returned to normal.
The goosebumps had receded. The sweat had begun to dry. I was facing my demon and telling myself the ruthless truth. Spencer, you are and have been driving drunk. An admission which seemed to lift a veil of lies off me. I could see clearly now. I could see why I carried my anger from the marriage break up with me as if it were a luxury purse for all to see. Poor me! Poor, poor Spencer. He thought he had the best wife
in the world until he started earning a better than average income when she turned into a monster.

I prayed right there and felt a sobering awakening to my own actions as I submitted to my shortcomings.I prayed I would never see that giant chicken again. I prayed I would be the best mother and father to my children.I prayed to lift the underlying anger from me and to live with as much love as I could spread. As I resumed my trip I felt a peace which I had not felt in a few years. That GIANT CHICKEN had saved me from not only becoming an alcoholic (if I had not already become one) but to face life with a more positive attitude.

I have never again been visited by that chicken and rarely drink except for an occasional glass of wine with dinner.