The following story is by a local contributor for Hoptown Chronicle’s 2026 Holiday Humor series, which highlights the lighter side of life with family and friends from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
(Editor’s note: Hopkinsville educator Wayne Goolsby shares a few holiday memories of growing up in Pembroke. As he he told Hoptown Chronicle editor Jennifer P. Brown, “You are making me go into the roughest neighborhood in town: Memory Lane. However, I will do it for you.”)
Did that bird shrink?
I don’t know how true it is, but I remember my mother telling a story about a housewife who asked a neighbor to check on her Thanksgiving turkey while she (the housewife) ran to church to do some errands.
The friend did as requested, but substituted a small Cornish hen for the large, baking Butterball in the oven…