Discussion guide for 2019-01-10
Ugly Chickens by Howard Waldrop
Notes by Wordsmith Jarvinen

[The story was chosen both for its topic (there's a dodo in the Oxbridge tutorial) and its descriptions of Southern rural life along with being different than any of the other stories we've done]

Serendipity at play: teaching assistant in ornithology currently looking for a research project, broken car, taking a particular bus at a specific time, book open to "ugly chicken" page, woman from an extremely rural area of the south who recognizes the picture.

Switch to fairly standard field research methods:

Interview Jolyn (Smith) Jimson to get time and place, then go to place.

Waldrop drops in history and description of the dodo.

Description of rural Mississippi

"The only life I saw was a mockingbird raising hell with something under a thorn bush the barbed wire had been nailed to in place of a post. To one side now was a grassy field which had gone wild, the way everywhere will look after we blow ourselves off the face of the planet. The other was fast becoming woods—pine, oak, some black gum and wild plum, fruit not out this time of the year."

Reference back to Ms. Jimson: But I knew she hadn't lied to me. She had seem incapable of lies—good ol' girl, backbone of the South, of the earth. Not a mendacious gland in her being. [I recall use of "mendacity" from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"].

Local meaning of time: "Lessee? Gudger? No Gudgers round here I know of. I'm sorta new here," I took that to mean he hadn't lived here for more than twenty years or so. 

Who tends to come out to such places: "You an insurance man?" asked Mr. Krait.

Local etiquette: "Mind if I ask what you're going up there for?" he asked. He was looking away from me. I could see having to come right out and ask was bothering him. Such things usually came up in the course of conversation. 

On location and back to field methods: Where? Where? I wish I'd been on more archaeological digs, knew the places to look. Refuse piles, midden heaps, kitchen scrap piles, compost boxes. Why hadn't I been born on a farm so I'd know instinctively where to search? 

Southern helpfulness: I went to the postmaster's house at Water Valley. She was getting ready for bed. I asked questions. She got on the phone. I bothered people until one in the morning. Then back into the trusty rent-a-car. 

Proceeds from the quest: The sack full of dodo bones, beaks, feet and eggshell fragments kept me company on the front seat.

More dodo history and background. 

On to Memphis to interview Ms.Annie Mae Gudger (childhood playmate of Jolyn Jimson).

History of the Gudgers and the dodos that they had.

Then to Mauritius to talk with Alma Chandler Gudger Molière, gaining documents, pictures, and the story of the end of the Mississippi dodos.