Letter To The Editor / Tradition or Nuisance

 

 By Roger Kostmayer

 

How long does it take for something to become a “tradition” in Key West?  It can happen overnight if a slick PR person gets a hold of it and markets it to our naive tourists and new comers.  The recent Citizen Voice hype expounding on the wonderful “tradition” of our free roaming chickens has prompted me to write this letter.  Sorry, but I must dispel the myth.  As a native Conch who grew up here in the ‘40s – ‘70s, I can speak with some credibility.

 

 

Sure folks had chickens back then, but they were kept in coups; covered at night and we ate the eggs — an effective form of population control.  Older Conchs will tell you that the beautifully colored roosters and hens that we see now roaming the court house and post office grounds are descendants of the Rhode Island Red chickens that were brought to Key West during the early days of the city (1820s) to rid the island of the palmetto bugs and scorpions.

 

 

So, yes, it is correct that the chickens have been here for almost 200 years, but they have only been free roaming for a few decades.  And, I cannot remember ever being woke up at 2:30 a.m. by a crowing rooster until recently.  Our neighbors, who had chickens, also had the courtesy and good common sense to keep them in coups at night and covered up.  This practice calmed our little featured friends and kept them quiet so everyone could get a good night’s sleep.  When Old Town properties became popular investment projects in the mid 1980s, the developers and new owners destroyed the coups and let the chickens go. The result is the burgeoning population of free roaming chickens that delight the tourist and annoy most of the locals.  They are a nuisance and possibly a health hazard, but definitely not an island tradition.

 

 

Attached you will find a poem that offers one solution for the blurry eyed and sleepless in Key West.  This one’s for you, BeBe.

 

 

THE BALLAD OF PONCHO & LEFTY

 

Roosters crowing in the dead of night

 

 

Can’t get any sleep near Garrison Bight.

 

 

Has the residents tossing and turning

 

 

In the cemetery hood.

 

 

Too bad we can’t train ’em

 

 

To chase that burglar away.

 

 

Scratching and dusting

 

 

Destroying our gardens.

 

 

Keeps the landscapers working

 

 

And leaf blowers whining.

 

 

It’s the great Key West

 

 

Noise Pollution Conspiracy.

 

 

Poncho & Lefty showed up around Thanksgiving.

 

 

Decided to roost in the Mango tree

 

 

Three feet away from my bedroom.

 

 

Poncho is a very loud tenor,

 

 

Who starts crowing at 2:30 a.m.

 

 

Crows for about 5 minutes,

 

 

Just enough to wake you up.

 

 

Then crows every hour on the hour until day break.

 

 

Lefty is his smaller side kick

 

 

Who backs him up in a shrill soprano.

 

 

Sometimes you can hear their cousins

 

 

Crowing in the distance in The Meadows.

 

 

The sound floats through Bayview Park

 

 

On the North Beach breeze.

 

 

Reminds you of a far away

 

 

Freight train in the middle of the night.

 

 

Some people say the free roaming chickens

 

 

Are a Key West tradition

 

 

More sacred than the Holy Grail.

 

 

Well, I finally trapped Poncho & Lefty.

 

 

Took me three months.

 

 

They are now at the Wild Bird Rescue Center,

 

 

Nice digs, good food, lots of friendly hens.

 

 

They’ll be deported soon

 

 

To Spring Hill or Ocala.

 

 

Living the good life on the main land.

 

 

The neighborhood is quiet now

 

 

But, it’s just a matter of time

 

 

Until one of those Harvey Center Roosters

 

 

Discovers the security of the Mango tree.

 

 

Fear not my little feathered friends

 

 

The trap is still baited.

 

 

 

 

J.M. VARELA  – CONCH POET

 

 

Founding Member Key West Poetry Guild

 

 

(a/k/a Jean Gregory)

 

 

1109 Georgia St.

 

Key West

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