Turkey Hunting Pennsylvania Style

Getting ready for Thanksgiving I was discussing turkeys with my neighbor’s grandson Erin. He’s 6 years old and goes to ‘Full Time Kidergarden’. He also has one of the most amazing imaginations I’ve ever come across.
A year and a half or so ago we’d had some storm or other come through and the lake came up a lot and had rearranged boats, docks and picnic tables along the shore. I saw him and his grandfather down at the lake and went down to survey the damage. Erin had just learned the story of Washington crossing the Delaware (which isn’t too far from here) and told his grandfather that the boat that had washed up on their beach was George Washington’s. His grandfather agreed and marveled at what great shape it was in. When I got down there and told him it was mine he automatically accepted that if the boat was mine then I must be --- Yep George Washington. To this day he calls me George Washington.
Last summer he came over to the Grotto to sit and whittle with me. We were whittling sticks to build a log cabin. While whittling he told me of a trap he’d set in the woods. I asked what kinda critters he was hoping to catch. “Oh chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits maybe a bear”. I asked what kind of trap could catch so many different animals. So he took me up the hill in the woods to show me the trap. It was a 5 gallon plastic bucket lying on its side. I said “Erin surely you don’t expect to catch a great big bear in this little bucket do you?” “Actually I’m just hopin for a couple of bear eggs”
So back to turkeys. He’s going to catch a turkey, we have a lot of them around here, for their Thanksgiving Day feast. “Just like the Pilgrims did”. I asked how they did it and he mumbled some stuff then admitted he wasn’t sure but he had a perfect way. Had to ask –“How”?
“Well you take a stick that’s sharp on both ends. You put a big onion on one end and then stick it in the ground. Then you hide behind a tree and just wait for a turkey to come by. He’ll peck at the onion and it’ll squirt him in the eye. He won’t be able to see you and you jump out from behind the tree and grab him”.

Zipidee DoDah