Chicken People Page #5

"gee, I want to be

a race car driver."

I just did it because

i wanted to be with him.

- My dad liked to win better

than he liked driving, so...

- That was it; I never drove

in competition again.

- The country girl

will be in Lane number one

on your side of the track.

- We gradually moved up

to faster and faster cars.

- Those cars were really

dangerous at the time.

I remember being at a race

and watching a guy die.

Then it was mom's turn

to run the same kind of car.

It was pretty scary.

They were not safe.

She had a fire.

The car going down the track,

and the next thing you know,

it's a big ball of fire.

- I could see the fire.

The flames came under the seat

and up the back.

- Boy, when I saw

the ball of flame,

I thought, "oh, man,"

'cause the motor

was eating itself up,

and that's why

it lit the finish line up

just about like day

for an instant.

- She got out of it,

and it was okay,

but it was close.

It was very close

to being bad.

- Pennsylvania,

this is Jason hathaway.

- Everything we get into,

we check it and measure it.

Everything has to be perfect.

- Well, ladies and gentlemen,

he's our number one

winner tonight.

Let's give him

a nice round of applause.

- That's how I've grown up

my whole life,

with things being perfect.

And I guess I may be

a little too much that way

with my chicken program,

a little too perfectionist

maybe.

But I guess it comes

from this world.

- Broody grump.

Oh, oh, look.

She's sitting on a spoon.

Oh, my goodness.

What is this?

That's not an egg.

Did you want this back?

Crazy chickens.

I have had a lot of bad luck

lately, I guess,

here on the farm.

I noticed our llama

wasn't feeling well,

so I called my neighbor down.

He came down

and looked at him on Sunday,

and then Monday morning,

he was dead.

And then my oldest chick pen,

everybody gets sick.

Coccidiosis is something

that can happen.

They start dying,

and then you see blood.

You hatch them,

and then they're starting

to look like little--

you know, little birds.

And then they die.

I mean, it makes me sad.

But I have so many other birds

that depend on me

and so many other things to do

that I can't just sit

and fixate on one thing.

It's just like a big cycle.

You know, things die,

things are born.

Things die, things are born.

You know, it's just

part of what happens.

I mean, it's like,

when you watch them grow

and you kind of get

to know them, you know?

I mean, it's like

you just really

kind of get bonded with them.

With animals, I think

it's, like, a lot deeper

than what people think.

Animals have been

a sanctuary in my life.

Okay.

We're gonna pull over

right here.

Well, there's something

right there, see?

Red-winged blackbird, male.

I call myself a baby bird,

because there's

so much to learn.

I've always loved birds.

My mom, she always had

a birdhouse

outside the window,

and she'd have a bird book,

so I kind of grew up

with just that love.

I had some really

difficult times growing up.

My dad started getting

into drinking really heavy,

and things got really rough

at home.

On more than one occasion,

I was upstairs in my room,

and next thing you know,

you hear dishes breaking,

and, like, a table's

turning over,

and, like, I can hear it

like it was like yesterday,

just that sound.

I couldn't feel safe.

It was like a war zone

at times.

Always used to dream

about flying when I was a kid.

I was like, I could fly

amazingly well.

And I would float

above my house,

and I remember looking down,

and I could see, like,

the neighbors' driveway

and their house.

And maybe I thought maybe

if I was too high

and I wrecked,

maybe I would get hurt.

But I never would wreck.

I'd always land

really, like, perfectly.

It was just amazing, you know,

the feeling

of being able to--

little chickadee around the--

sorry, I'm very distracted

by birds.

The feeling of flying

was just--it was amazing,

I mean, you know,

'cause you're just so free.

- Test, test, one, two, three.

One, two, three, four.

Test, test, test.

I'm in the process

of putting together a solo show.

I could go out tomorrow

and announce that

I'm doing a show in Anna,

and I would pack the house,

so...

I don't mean to--

you know, don't mean to brag,

but I have enough of a following

that I can make it work.

- Southern Illinois' q106.

- Got a special guest on the

phone with us this afternoon.

Brian caraker is doing classics

from the great

American songbook,

and we've got him on the line.

Good afternoon, Brian.

- Hi there, how are you today?

- I'm doing great,

how about yourself?

- Oh, just great.

- So tell us a little bit

about you.

- I am traditionally

a jazz standards singer.

That's the music

that I grew up with,

and that's the music

i want to bring to everybody.

You put on a show,

you put on an act,

you put on a face,

and you put on a persona,

so to speak.

And it's fine and it's good,

but it's false.

So what this show

allows me to do

is just totally be myself.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

Brian caraker.

- This time, I picked all songs

that meant something to me,

that touched me

in a special way.

And when you're

true to yourself

and then people can see that,

like, that's a pretty

incredible feeling.

When sunny gets blue

her eyes get gray and cloudy

then the rain begins to fall

The funny thing is,

I can promote my chickens

all day long every day,

no problem.

When it comes to talking

about myself...

I've always had

pretty low self-esteem.

So pretty hard on myself.

When sunny gets blue

she breathes

a sigh of sadness

I don't know, sometimes I don't

feel very special, you know?

So you have to--

I've got to work

on getting over that.

Past experiences

in my life

and people bullying

and always trying

to bring me down,

no matter how much success

i would have

in whatever I was doing.

Weird and haunting melodies

I didn't really let

my dad in

to how I was treated

in my high school.

To be honest, I didn't want

to talk about it to anyone.

One of the things

that helped me

get through the torment

that I experienced

every single day

was, I could come home,

and I could forget

about high school,

because me and my dad

could go to a chicken show.

The poultry is a bit

of an oasis for me.

The chickens don't judge you.

They don't judge me.

Hold her near

when sunny gets blue

- Son, that was awesome.

I have heard you sing

for years.

It was never, never

as good as it was tonight.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- That was awesome.

If you go with numbers

of people here,

could be termed

as disappointing.

- Super outstanding.

- But you can't stop

something like this.

And there'll be more.

Stay tuned,

i guess I should say.

- This is, by far,

the most highly pathogenic

avian influenza strain

we've ever seen.

- More than 21 million birds

in commercial

and backyard flocks

have been destroyed

in the worst outbreak

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