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By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Every holiday has its emblem. Christmas has Christmas trees, the
Fourth of July has fireworks, and Thanksgiving has hand
turkeys.
Yes, those icons of elementary school, the anatomically
questionable hand turkeys, can even be found on Bruin Walk, where,
with a little prodding on the part of the Daily Bruin, students
talked about what Thanksgiving means to them while messily tracing
their hands with a marker.
“Thanksgiving is a great time to go home and not think
about school, even though my turkey has to write a paper,”
said Rachel Posner, a second-year communications student, as she
drew Marvin, an *NSYNC-loving hand turkey.
The students approached the blank page like artists confounded
by the choices ahead of them. Trying to find the appropriate
colors, select fitting names and describe their turkeys’
habits proved a challenge for many. The results varied, with some
people’s turkeys looking much the same as a grade
schooler’s, and others reflecting the (comparatively)
advanced age of the artists.
Though hand turkey canon dictates that the drawings embody the
innocence of youth, a few UCLA creations took a political stand. In
a bout of rebelliousness, one was pierced.
Some turkeys had legs, some didn’t. Some had beaks, while
others had smiles. More than one hand turkey artist found that
their creation looked like a turtle. Another thought his was a
little lizard-like.
In the days leading up to the Thanksgiving weekend, be a kid
again and take the time to draw a hand turkey, even if you feel
silly doing it. After all, it’s not Thanksgiving without
marker stains on your hand.