LONG GONE LIKE A TURKEY IN THE CORN

While reading HIS PROMISED LAND: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN P. PARKER, FORMER SLAVE AND CONDUCTOR ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD edited by Stuart Seely Sprague (W.W. Norton, NY: 1996), an extraordinarily good slave narrative, the author described how most of the runaway slaves would defer their departure until the early fall when the corn had ripened in the fields, since that was their primary food source while on the move. (p.137-138) This brought to mind a song that our music teacher had taught us in the 3rd grade about "a turkey in the corn with his long clothes on....he's long gone." That song always struck me as strange, since turkeys obviously do not wear clothes. Intuiting a connection, I googled "turkey in the corn," and sure enough Lightening Hopkins, the legendary blues singer, has recorded a version of that song, which I play now about a runaway slave being that "turkey in the corn with his long clothes on, gone": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2yd3DRhAI0#t=70