Cuero, Texas Running Turkey

You machine cancel collectors know this one, but maybe not others:


Before the Interwebs, I was too lazy to find out what was going on here. Turkey around Thanksgiving time made sense. But this was about the town's Turkey Trot festival -- including a parade with floats and a king and queen, the whole shebang.

Since about the beginning of the 1900s, local turkey growers would drive their flocks (as in cattle drive) down the main street to the processing plant. They had no trucks. The drive would attract tourists, and Cuero decided to build on it by having a celebration.

Note the relatively skinny turkey, much like the wild ones running around now. The big-breasted domestic turkeys of today can hardly move so can't even waddle down a road.

Nice story.

A classic. It's the only one of over 7,000 American flag machine cancels that has a pictorial element.

JUST BOUGHT ONE ON ebay

That's pretty neat. I drove through Cuero once..didnt see any turkeys though

Who exactly would want to name their child "Frank" Frank?

The armadillo racers of Texas seem to have missed a philatelic trick.