Cheapside Traveler

There isn’t much in sleepy Cheapside these days. The place is a ghost town with the downtown buildings that remain sporting various shades of ruin. Some have missing roofs, others lean a bit to the left.

The most action the community sees these days is from oilfield traffic going to and from the many wells that have popped up. Save for church services and whatever gets held at the community center, not much happens there anymore.

But down a dirt road and into an open range where a new herd of longhorn cattle rest on a lazy day sits the home of one of the area’s arguably most famous residents, Keyes Carson.

You won’t find Carson there, for he now rests in the Bellevue Cemetery, having passed in 2007. But his story is one that needs to be told, and it’s one that will barely fit the confines of this page.

Keyes Carson was an adventurer, a thinker and a tinkerer. Whatever got him started on his kick for the inventive side of life, it sure had some longevity. His interest sparked from the old Cuero Turkey Trot festivals during the 1930s and his obsession with turkeys lasted his whole life.

As a student of Texas A&M University, Carson developed a knack for hitchhiking wherever he needed to go. In the first part of last century, it did not have the stigma attached to it that it does today. Hitchhiking was seen as a logical way to get around, especially for thrifty students.

While in college, he founded the “United Collegiate Thumbers,” a club devoted to promoting safe hitchhiking. Carson published two booklets, one containing useful information on hitchhiking and another that was a receipt book that hitchhikers could use to give information to drivers that accommodated them.

In the information booklet, it describes the Club as “organized for the purpose of distinguishing the collegian from the habitual hobo.” It had a chart listing distances between towns, things to do in the larger cities, helpful hints and a list of license plate numbers.

The plate numbers were produced in numerical order and were issued to cars in certain cities. This would help a hitchhiker know that if he was heading to Dallas and saw a car coming with a Dallas plate, chances were good that they’d be going the same way.

He also goes into detail regarding his experiences in certain models of cars, noting that the Chevrolet was the best all-around car. This was based on the fact that while in college he hitched a ride in 6,680 cars over six-and-a-half years and traveled 251,000 miles. Each trip was meticulously documented by Carson, taking note of the driver, vehicle, destination and topics discussed.

In 1940 while campaigning for President Franklin Roosevelt, he got the idea to hitchhike to Washington D.C. to deliver a Thanksgiving turkey to the White House.

“I said if he were re-elected, I would hitchhike to Washington to give him a turkey, which I did,” said Carson from an April 9, 1968 article in The Bryan Daily Eagle. Along the way he rode with 22 different persons with an average speed of 38 miles per hour.

During the trip the turkey— which was the grand champion of that year’s Turkey Trot— traveled in a converted Pearl Beer crate. Carson had also developed a reflective sign that would show drivers where he was headed. The letters were interchangeable, so that he could replace one city with another along his way.

It was little inventions like that and the 5 cent hitchhiking pamphlets that he used to make a little money for his education. He hoped to one day make a small empire out of his ideas.

On Dec. 23, 1941 the San Antonio Light newspaper reported on Carson’s next voyage as he passed through the city on a trip to see Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho. He was carrying a 28-pound turkey to present as a good will gift of the City of Cuero.

His description of the mission was to deliver a bird of thanks to Mexico for the friendly relations between the U.S. and Mexico “while neighboring countries across the Atlantic were fighting each other.” Carson wrote that President Camacho embraced him and said the bird would be used in breeding. He also invited the Texan to return one day to have some turkey for dinner.

A stint in World War II did not stop Carson or his causes. Upon his return he resumed hitchhiking, once even taking the train to see the Aggie football team play in Los Angeles and bragging that he beat the team there by hitchhiking while they traveled by train.

While on a trip to Chicago in 1946, Carson had his car broken into in which the thieves stole some guns and other articles. He promised “the biggest turkey in the country” to anyone that recovered his possessions. He made good on the offer when he sent a 46-pound bird to the detectives that solved the case.

By this time the man was clearly enjoying himself, trotting all over the country and giving turkeys to dignitaries. In 1956 he made another trip to D.C. to deliver a couple of birds for President Dwight Eisenhower’s holiday meal. This time Carson was accompanied by U.S. Congressman John Bell of Corpus Christi.

Two turkeys were delivered that year. One, a 40-pound specimen, was sent to the President’s Gettysburg farm while the other was a frozen bird for the White House table. It was noted that before the delivery, the live bird was able to graze on the Capitol grounds.

The 1940 Aggie grad had a special spot for giving turkeys to A&M notables. In 1955 he brought a bird to football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and another to Coach Gene Stallings in 1968. It was the “biggest, finest looking turkey I had ever seen” remarked the coach.

“I consider it a real pleasure to accept this turkey on behalf of Texas A&M and the football team,” said Stallings.

This very newspaper even got in on the action. In a Nov. 25, 1965 piece, the Inquirer reported that “A 25 year-old tradition by Gonzales’ one-man chamber of commerce continued this week as Keyes Carson, Jr. presented a turkey to former Vice President John Nance Garner of Uvalde.”

It continued, quoting Carson as saying, “I give this turkey to former Vice President Garner in thanks for his 46 years of service to our country.”

And this story will continue, as things really get interesting with Keyes Carson and his traveling turkey.

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For Part Two click here.

For Part Three click here.