24 September-October 2008 Applegater
CHICKEN
FROM PAGE 23
at the same time I swerved to the right, then to the left forcing the right
rear set of duals to go into a breaking broadside toward that chicken.
He was caught unaware of my sudden burst of blinding speed
and was hit by my balding, outside 800x16 tire. I skidded to a stop and
backed up so’s I could gloat over his ruffled body. I found him on the
side of the road in a heap. I said, in my best John Wayne voice, “You
got a problem pilgrim?” The chicken raised his head, looked me square
in the eye, raised his chicken foot and gave me the chicken finger and
then passed away.
I had that chicken foot mounted as he gave it, and it adorns my
wall amongst my other trophies.
Bob Fischer • 541-846-6218
NOTE: I wrote this story over 20 years ago for another publication in southern
California and sent a copy to my mother and father and my sister Sue in Newberg,
Oregon. What I got back from them was quite amazing; a small blue coffin with a
chicken in it with one leg in a Reebok running shoe and in running shorts. The laugh
is on me. I hope you enjoy my rewrite for the Gater and the Applegate area. RMF
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Photos, clockwise from top left:
Mary Driver at Parc Guell in Barcelona with
her copy of the Gater.
Dave Clayton stops to check out the Gater at
Cabo Plumo reef in Baja California Sur.
Jerry and Andrea Nelson read the Gater
in Wittenberg, Wisconsin and enjoy it very
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Gabriella Sarrouh, 9, of San Carlos, CA, re-
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John Tittle, son of football great Y.A. Tittle,
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bustling Mountain View, CA, headquarters of
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On her third round-the-world trip, L. “Kitty”
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berg, Germany and found herself inside the
head of a relative.
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