A Hat Full of Rabbits (2006)

In the fall of 1933 I was in the second grade of St. Joseph’s School in Mobile, Alabama. Classes were to end early one day for the arrival of a traveling magician.  He held up his empty hat, reached in and took out a white rabbit,  He reached into his hat again and pulled out a live white dove. To our surprise he then pulled out another white rabbit with a little hat on and when the trickster took the hat off a yellow canary flew out.

It has been nearly three quarters of a century since this initial misleading occurrence with rabbits and, at the time of that betrayal I had never met a turkey.  What I was to learn later was that magicians were rank amateurs when it comes to instances of surprise.  Turkeys are professionals.

Copyright Tom Kelly Inc. 2006