Sixty years ago this week, LIFE published an odd and endearing article — the latest in a string of, by that point, countless odd and endearing articles the magazine had shared with its readers over the course of two decades. Now, as another Thanksgiving bears down upon us, we thought we’d revisit that long-ago article — and the pictures that accompanied it — as a holiday gift, of sorts, to today’s readers.
Titled “Gaily Garbed Gobblers,” the piece focused on a “Texas farmwoman’s snug halters [designed to] support her turkeys’ sagging crops and boost their market value.” For the uninitiated, a “crop” is a portion of the alimentary tract — usually found in birds, but also in some animals and even insects — where food can be stored prior to digestion.
As LIFE vividly explained the situation in the magazine’s Nov. 22, 1954, issue:
To omnivores, locavores, vegetarians and vegans everywhere: Happy Thanksgiving, and whatever we all choose to eat, here’s hoping that none of us feels overly pendulous afterward.
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