The chicken first arrived about 3 weeks ago. I was walking out to grab a soda down the street and while walking out the front door I noticed a chicken standing with his back to the window, chest puffed out, looking towards the street. There are people all around outside, sitting and waiting, and this chicken was not phased by all the action around him. He was standing still and looked like a statue. So I got a little laugh about it. I mean this is a common scene in Key West where you see chickens all over the streets and even on top of the buildings, don't ask me how they get there. But that raises the question of how did this chicken get here, and why did he cross the road.
So a lot of people like the chicken. Customers like to pet it and someone has even been bringing it food and water. The majority of workers here do not want it removed, we want it left alone, it's our mascot and it's kinda funny have a chicken at the front door everyday.
But there are some people here that are superstitious and afraid of the chicken. I had no idea that people in this country are so weird and superstitious. There has been a lot of Santeria talk, a lot of "don't go near that chicken".
Due to all the Santeria talk I have got an even further education of how superstitious people are here. The lady that took the pictures of the chicken started telling me about a goat that was slaughtered at her husbands work, ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement), and how no islanders would go near the thing because they thought it's spirit would get them. Then she proceeded to tell me about the brown bags in the freezer. I guess there was a lady in the office that no one liked so everyone wrote her name on a paper and put it in a brown bag. So this lady telling the story says that she goes to open the freezer and there are 20 brown bags. She tells everyone to take their food home or it's going in the trash. They all freak out and told her those bags have to remain in there forever because it keeps the annoying person away from them and since they have done it she has left them alone. Some kind of Santeria curse. And other people took it even further and took the brown bags to train tracks, not the ones next to the office though because they have to be so far away from the person you want to curse. Then 9 train cars have to run it over and then you can freeze it.
This kind of stuff just baffles me. I mean we are in a day where we drive cars to work. We have technology. We have education, well some of us. And yet so many people in this country believe in the strangest voodoo stuff. I was watching a show about the Machiguenga in the Amazon and they believe that deer spirits can enter a person's body and make them sleep with their own daughters, yet they eat monkeys, which are as close to human as you get. I can understand when people that are living in the rainforest out of society and not educated can believe in something so far fetched, but in the modern world, well it's mind boggling. But ever notice in America there are no 13th floors? Or how many people do you know that are afraid of the number 666. I used to work in a meat department and people would make me put more meat on or take some off if it weighed or cost 666. So stupid. How many times in their life you think they come across that number without even realizing it. I like to mess with people and if I see a chicken at the store that cost $6.66 I buy it and then I get a big smile and say it's my lucky number when they ring it up. I don't believe in superstition at all, it's ridiculous.
Here are some pictures of our famous Immigration Chicken. I think he crossed the road/boarder, to get a visa. We'll see if he gets denied. One of the higher ups isn't so happy about the chicken being here. Everyone else seems to be on my side and want to give this chicken political asylum. Don't deport our chicken, leave him alone.
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