The presidential tradition of pardoning a turkey on the eve of
Thanksgiving in a Whitehouse ceremony find its way back to Harry Truman,
over 50 years ago. In this ceremony, some of the best turkeys raised
especially for the day are chosen for the pardoning ceremony. Only one
of them makes to the seat of National Thanksgiving Turkey and is
arbitrarily chosen by the President for the post. The turkey is pardoned
at the last minute. It is not uncommon that President and other people
share 'turkey jokes' on the occasion. Rest of the turkeys are
slaughtered and cooked for the elaborate Thanksgiving feast but the
turkey who receives the presidential pardon gains all the media
attention and spends rest of his days in peace in the Kidwell Farm at
Frying Pan Park, in Herndon, Virginia.
The turkeys who have been pardoned by the President are the only lucky
ones, who need not worry about being served as Thanksgiving centerpiece
to the guests and live to the ripe old age and die a natural death.
Frying Pan Park resembles the rural look of a family farm of Fairfax
Country from 1920s and Kidwell Farm is a petting farm there. There are
many other species of livestock that are housed to represent the ones
that were commonly found in the farms of those days such as draft
horses, chickens, peacocks, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs and cows. As
many as 1,500,000 people visit the farm every year and the visitor
timings are between 9 am to 5 pm. One can pet the friendly farm animals
here, watch the farm hands at work, enjoy picnics; hay rides and walks
through the country.
