University Daily Kansan
Thursday, September 6, 1979
9
An overfit crowd of 23,000 waited patiently in their cars for entrance to Roosterville, while the winged competitions waited also—in somewhat less glamorous accommodation.
Roosterville '79
"Fly or fry" was heard often during the day as the chickens owners were often forced to prompt their birds into flight with a toilet plunger.
ROOSTERVILLE, Mo.-Ollie Ruark's bird, Old John Henry, was billed as "being able to fly like an eagle," but, like most of the birds in the roosting area, he was Chicken Fly, the rooster performed like a parakeet with clipped wings.
Roosterville, an unincorporated town about three miles north of Liberty, Mo., put on the unusual contest last Saturday.
Jim Tyler, a disc jockey at a Kansas City, Mo., radio station, sponsored the attempt to break the world chicken fly. At 10:28 p.m., 82.8 feet as a promotional gimmick.
More than 400 chickens were entered, and 25,000 people watched as bird after bird made its assault on the record.
Kathy Schiller of the Double-Breasted Fryer Fliers of Blue Springs, Mo., entered what she called an Australian homing chicken.
"These babies will fly like nothing you've ever seen," she said. "We'll turn them loose and they will zip right on back to Australia."
A row of aluminum mailboxes on a wooden platform was the starting gate. After the unwilling fwere were placed in the boxes, a starter chanted, "one, one, one," and the chickens owners gave their birds a shave with a toilet plunger.
However, Schiller's entry, Fumble Butt Fast, did more fumbling than flying.
The result, in most cases, was dismal.
Most of the chickens went only as far
as their owners' shoves carried them and then fell to the ground.
The winning chicken, Ms. Lucky Cluck, owned by Melvin Dewkins of Mooresville, Mo., fell about 100 feet short of the record.
But even though Ms. Lucky Chuck's performance did not get her a name in the record books, it did win Dawkins a mobile and a purple rosy phone.
The chicken-fly contest also aiso
the more common Labor Day holiday
activities: hot dogs, games pie and
bluegrass music.
Chicken fliers from Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri began travelling the Clay County roads at 6 a.m. for all day event.
The chickens entered in the contest came in all sizes and colors and were carried in all sorts of containers.
Of the 10 sketty rules drawn up for the event, the one that read "have a good time" seemed to be most adhered to.
However, one woman misunderstood the purpose of the event; she brought a chicken ready for frying.
"This is the first one of these darn things I've been to," Chatty Parks, Kansas City, Kan., said, "but it damn sure looks like fun."
"You've got great-looking chicks— both kinds—and plenty to eat. The only things missing are beer and good rest rooms."
Clay County sheriff's deputies posted at the contest said the crowd was well-mannered.
The one disturbance reported was over chicken ownership, but the fight broke up when the chicken escaped.
kathy Schiller of the Double Brested Fryer Filters of Blue Springs, mo. cradles her bird Fomile But Fast as the competition winds to a close.
Photos by Bill Frakes