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The Plight of the Turkey Turns 25
By Shannon Allen
Although Grandparents Day is not a federal holiday, at Fort Worth Country Day, Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day is one of the School’s “Red Letter Days.” Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day is a hallmark of the FWCD experience for Lower School and Middle School students and their “grands.” It is a day to commemorate the connections between generations and for the FWCD students to invite their grandparents and grandfriends to see the wonders of their school world.
History of FWCD Grandparents’ Day
The FWCD tradition of celebrating grandparents and grandfriends is longstanding, dating back to 1979. The first Grandparents’ Day was a Middle School and Upper School event on December 13, 1979, according to a program found in the FWCD Archives. Hosted by the FWCDS Grandparents Association, the event featured a general meeting in the Upper School Commons for the association and then dismissed for programming before ending with a reception. Select teachers provided grandparents with a small sample of the kind of education their grandchildren received at FWCD. “Topics have been chosen for their intrinsic interest and topicality as well as for their representativeness of our curriculum,” the program notes. Tom Brock, Middle School Science Teacher, spoke on insects; Albert Viola, Theatre Director, gave an introduction to acting; Ford Dixon, Upper School History Teacher, delivered a lecture titled “The Jimmy Carter Years: An Historical Perspective”; and Beverly Anne Robinson H’18, Upper School English Teacher, delivered “A Study of Power.” The program ended with two options: Sharon Foster H’05, Middle School Science Teacher, on “Sex Education” and Tawny Kilbourn, Upper School English Teacher, on “General Semantics.” The event did not include the students.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Christine (Derber) Leuck, then Lower School Music Teacher, recalled the program shifting to focus on an individual country. “For many years, the music of an individual country was featured. Those countries included Japan, Scotland, Hungary, Australia, and, of course, the United States,” she noted. “More recently, the focus has been more of a glimpse into the day of a Lower School student, with classroom visits, demonstrations, art projects, and performances. It was Jean Webb, former Third Grade Teacher and Special Events Coordinator, who Leuck credits with evolving the event into Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day, with more student interactions. While in the 1980s, events took place over the course of a week in November or December, the newly configured event took place the Friday before Thanksgiving. It featured student essays, artwork, theatre projects, choir and orchestra concerts, dance recitals, classroom visits, and lunch on campus.
In 2012, the event split into two days, with kindergarten events on the Thursday before Thanksgiving followed by grades 1-4 and Middle School events on the Friday before the holiday.
How The Plight Came to Be
In the fall of 1997, Leuck got the idea to put together a collection of songs about turkeys to create a singing program for the kindergarteners. Who knew she would be able to come up with 20 songs about turkeys off the top of her head? From that list, she chose six and wove them together with some short dialogue to connect the songs. The songs were “A Great Big Turkey Am I”; “Any Turkey Can Tango”; “The Conceited Turkey”; “Gobble, Gobble, Gobble”; “I Heard Mr. Turkey Say”; and “Turkeys United.” This is how the beloved program, The Plight of the Turkey, was conceived.
The songs and dialogue came to Leuck from various sources. “‘The Conceited Turkey’ was given to me by Jack Noble White, who composed FWCD’s ‘Alma Mater,’” Leuck noted. “My colleague and friend, Barbara Meyers [then a Kindergarten Teacher], gave me the finger play poem, Here is a Turkey with His Tail Spread Wide. The other songs came from elementary music sources.”
The ending song, “Turkey’s United,” had the turkeys going on strike to protest Thanksgiving Day because they did not want to be eaten. The lyrics are:
“One year, a kindergarten grandmother lamented to me that her granddaughter would not eat turkey because of the message in the song,” Leuck shared. “I decided that it might be a good idea to find another piece for the end.”
Leuck went back to her original collection of turkey songs and found the perfect ending … “Super Turkey” (music and lyrics by David Bell). She created a cast of characters for the song, Super Turkey, Mama Turkey, Papa Turkey, and Farmer Brown, all who have solos in the song. And the rest is history. Since 2006, “Super Turkey” has closed the show to rave reviews, and many on-campus join in on the chorus to sing along with the kindergarten performers:
The 2021 performance was the 25th anniversary of The Plight of the Turkey and the 15th anniversary of “Super Turkey.”
Several past and present FWCD community members have contributed to the lore of The Plight of the Turkey. Les Hofheinz, former Technical Theatre Teacher, built and painted the barn facade. Betty Darden, former Business Office Administrative Assistant, fashioned the delightful costumes for Super Turkey and Mama and Papa Turkey. Upper School Art Teacher Holly Clifford painted the pictures of the houses and the pig that looks out the barn windows. “And all of the Kindergarten Teachers and Assistants are the glue that keeps the turkeys gobbling along,” Leuck said. “That is no easy feat!”
Head of School Eric Lombardi often states that Fort Worth Country Day stands on the shoulders of giants. All those who created the Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day tradition and those who continue to carry it on, now Karla Dunning and Julie Dean, Lower School Music Teachers, along with the Kindergarten and Lower School Teachers are part of the magic. This cherished FWCD tradition is the result of great love, coordination and cooperation that is typical of a School of Excellence.
