Trouble and Tom

There is a turkey or two at Roy Taylor Sr.’s house today. They are part of what he is thankful for, but they won’t make his Thanksgiving table.

The turkeys he has trotting around his place just past the Harlowe Volunteer Fire Department are led by Tom and Trouble. Both are pets, even though Trouble got his name from pecking anyone who gets too close, including Taylor or his son, Roy Jr.

There is a hierarchy among the birds, and Trouble is clearly at the top of the pecking order as he struts and shakes the waddle of his long, tall, red neck.

Taylor, originally from Arkansas, was a Marine based at Cherry Point who came and went and settled here more than three decades ago. He has since raised a lot of turkeys and said many of them did make a good dinner, the gobblers and the hens.

People stop by this time of year when they see the turkeys out and ask if he has one to sell, and the Taylors willingly step outside and call up the brood, scatter some feed, and chat about how much better a fresh turkey is than a frozen one.

They talk about the area’s recent repopulation of the less flamboyant wild turkeys that have a home range of about 2 to 10 square miles and, with all the open land in Croatan National Forest, Cherry Point, and Weyerhaeuser timberland, can sometimes be seen on roadsides nearby.

But the Taylors tell their guests also that they’re not offering any of their own turkeys for sale or to the ax this year.

It’s not an animal activist thing, or an attempt to set some historical precedent, like turkeys that receive pardons from U.S. presidents every Thanksgiving.

"I just really like having them around," said Roy Taylor Sr.

And for that, Trouble and Tom are quite thankful.