Turkey

Turkey assumed his position as crew-clown as soon as he stepped off the plane. During his first few days in town, when asked where he was from, he would reply, “I’m from Barham, New South Wales”. When met with blank looks from locals, he’d add with a reassuring tone, “It’s right on the Murray”.

From day one Turkey asserted that he did not drink beer, starting off on the wrong foot with some of the boys. On his second night in town we went down to the Plum Thicket Inn in Kiowa. I think Turkey was a bit homesick, perhaps starting to realise exactly how far from home he was (flying out of Melbourne was the first time he had been on a plane). He propped himself up at the bar, away from the rest of the group, and flagged a bartender wearing a red Budweiser cap. “I don’t drink beer, I drink bourbon”. “Ok, what are you having?”. “Wild Turkey”, he replied, slapping the bar. And so, ‘Turkey’ was born.

The bartender took a liking to Turkey. Toward the end of the night, we saw him finish off a bottle, giving Turkey two and a half nips, and open up another bottle to round it up to three. Needless to say, Turkey was feeling pretty festive by the end of the night. We had to leave when he started chatting up the wife of the biggest guy in the bar.

Turkey gets more than his fair share of shit from some of the guys. For all of his goofiness, and despite the fact that he can easily get on the nerves, I reckon he’s one of the bravest on the crew simply for his tenacity. His goofiness is best illustrated through this incident recently videoed at the laundrette in Gordon Nebraska.