Commentary by Ward Degler
When I quit smoking more than four decades ago, I did it cold turkey. I had tried to quit by installments a couple times, you know, cutting back a little at a time, but quickly learned that didn’t work. If I’m going to break an addiction, it’s got to be cold turkey.
Recently, I got to wondering if “cold turkey” had some deep secret meaning, perhaps some obscure event in history that might harken back to colonial days and white man’s negotiations with Indians for an allotment of wild turkeys. Maybe the feathered kind of wild turkey traded for the Kickapoo Joy Juice kind that came in a bottle.
Every reference I found, however, had to do kicking the habit. John Lennon came up with “Cold Turkey” in 1969, a song about breaking free from heroin. In 1971, Hollywood released a movie, “Cold Turkey,” about a small town where every resident gave up smoking to win a $25 million prize.
Sadly, nobody offered me $25 million to give up smoking, but my wife did threaten to kick me out if I didn’t stop smoking in the house. Since it was the middle of winter in Minnesota, quitting was suddenly easier.
Even at the point of origin, cold turkey meant the sudden, unprepared giving up of something that had you by the throat: opium, heroin, even Kickapoo Joy Juice. The idea was, in the quick meal department, a lunch of cold turkey required neither planning nor preparation.
I also discovered that the phrase “cold shoulder” referred to an icy reception, probably of someone who hadn’t yet gone cold turkey to clear up some nasty habit. It’s interesting that these days we call someone like that a turkey.
And then there’s “talking turkey,” which translates just about everywhere to engaging in serious negotiations. I did discover some earlier references, however. In the 1800s, talking turkey referred to pleasant conversation over dinner, perhaps Thanksgiving. Turkey definitely is serious business on Thanksgiving.
And back in colonial times, it really was common practice for settlers to negotiate with neighborhood Indians for food. Presumably, that included wild turkeys. And who knows, maybe even a jug or two of Wild Turkey.
