David_Weatherly's Blog

Why did the chicken cross the road? How many times have we all heard that tired old line? What I really want to know is; who came up with the stupid question in the first place? But I digress…By now, we all know the answer, the chicken crossed the road to get to the other side, but he may have had good reason to go over there.

A little over a week ago, Fox8 reporter, Chad Tucker gave me a tip about a rooster that had been spotted hanging around the old Surry County courthouse in Dobson. It was one of those tips that begged to be checked out in person, so Roy and I headed that way. The stately old building covers a city block and is surrounded by ancient oaks and a lush green lawn. On our first lap around the place, that’s about all we saw. But after the long drive were not going to give up that easily. I wanted a closer look. As I pulled the car into one of the parallel parking spaces, something out of the ordinary caught my eye. There he was strutting his stuff, with brightly colored feathers shining in the sun and a blood red comb standing at attention. We had found the “Courthouse rooster.”

No one seems to have clue where he came from. He just showed up one day. Funny thing is, Roy and I have seen this before. In fact we’ve done several stories about roosters that have shown up and started hanging around places not typically frequented by chickens. I recall one at a gas station Madison, one at a car lot in Virginia, and another at neighborhood grocery in Mount Airy.  There have been others. As my mind did the “Chicken Reel” down memory lane, I remembered one of our most unusual and maybe my favorite foul stories, shot way back in 1991. Below is a photo taken the day we shot the story.

In it you see Perdue the chicken (yes I said Perdue) standing on my camera, with much younger versions of the “Roy’s Folks” team. I don’t want to give away too much about the story, just watch the clip below and you’ll see why it stands out.

 I don’t know what it is about chickens that spark our interest. Maybe it's "Walt Disney" or growing up with cartoons like Foghorn Leghorn. Whatever the reason, we always seem to find a good story to crow about when there is a chicken involved. Maybe that’s why he crossed the road…

CIick here to see the rooster story.

f you have any good chicken stories or any other ideas, please send them my way. You can write me at david.weatherly@foxtv.com