Ben Franklin the Turkey
Created | Updated Last Week
Ben Franklin the Turkey
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Benjamin Franklin was dissatisfied. This was not wholly unfamiliar territory for him, but his colleagues in the Continental Congress had been busy designing a seal for the country that they hoped the 13 colonies would become. What they had come up with featured a bald eagle. He picked up his pen and wrote a letter to his daughter criticizing the eagle design, saying that it looked more like a turkey. It was not a problem that the eagle looked like a turkey for, as Franklin wrote, the 'Bald Eagle...is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly�[he] is too lazy to fish for himself.'
About the turkey, Franklin wrote that in comparison to the bald eagle, the turkey is 'a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America...He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.'
Franklin had been very busy lately, and he began to feel drowsy. Suddenly he woke with a start and found himself in a very strange place. He was sitting on a lawn where dozens of turkeys were eating food that the land owner had put out food for. However, this was not the strangest part of the scene. Turning around, Franklin could see a roundabout where some very strange things made of metal were turning at great speed. He decided to hop over the fence to inspect them more closely, and this was when he realized that he had wings. There was a birdbath nearby. Looking into the water, he saw a turkey staring back at him.
How had he become a turkey? And where was he? For that matter, when was he? Well, since he could fly (something he had previously been unable to do), he figured he might as well make the most of it. There was school a little over a hundred feet away, so he flew toward it. There were many of the metal vehicles in the parking lot, which was paved with asphalt. Happily, none of them was moving.
Another strange thing that he noticed was that the sign on the school said 'Riverdale school.' The name wasn't what was odd, but rather that a turkey could read and understand written English. Franklin's memories and knowledge had carried over to his turkey condition. He recalled that the venerable town of Dedham, Massachusetts had a section called Riverdale. Okay, this was truly starting to be bizarre. How had he gotten from Pennsylvania in the 19th Century to Massachusetts in whatever century this was?
He was beginning to get thirsty. Since there was a river in Riverdale, he decided to follow the road in hopes of finding the river. The road began descending. He saw more metal vehicles, many of them motionless in a row, some of them with flashing lights. As he got closer to the river, he saw some sort of intersection. There was a bank of lights suspended over the road. The metal vehicles seemed to be proceeding according to the colors of the lights.
He flew over the road and veered left across a bridge. he could see the river now. He seemed ot recall that it was the Charles River. He took a right and followed another road, past a shop that identified itself as 'Dunkin.' The metal vehicles were streaming along the road now, and he felt scared. He began looking for somewhere that he might retreat to so he could soothe his jangled nerves. Aha! Up ahead he saw a sign that read 'Boston Trailer Park.' Trailers he knew about. They didn't move unless they were hitched up to something.
He descended some sort of ramp. There weren't any of the strange metal vehicles moving here, but he saw some parked by the roadside. Turning left, he saw an arborvitae tree. He figured he might be able to perch in its branches and he safe from wolves and people with guns. Flying toward it, he saw a black metallic vehicle parked in front of a 'trailer' that seemed to be some sort of residence.
Apparently, in the era he was now in, people were reduced to living in trailers. Oh, dear!
A dog was going past. It barked at him. He jumped on the roof of the vehicle and took a look at this strange unfathomable place.
Then he woke up and realized he was back in his study in Philadelphia. He began forming a financial plan for Boston, If the people of a future century had to cope with these strange vehicles, they would need a great deal of money. he decided to bequeath a sum to the City of Boston, and make sure that it could grow for at least 200 years. If it was still around, and if the republic was still a republic. But then, at least turkeys had managed to survive. Had bald eagles been as lucky?
