Living Landmarks

The Big Chicken

Marietta, Georgia

Seeing is believing in “The Big Chicken” northwest of Atlanta.  Or, should I say: “First you don’t believe what others tell you about it.  Then you see it and don’t believe what you tell yourself!”  It’s seven stories high and has moving eyes and beak. It was originally a locally owned establishment called— Johnny Reb’s Chick-Chuck-’N'-Shake. It was sold to the Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation a few years after it was built.  In 1993, it was severely damaged by a storm, and after threats to tear it down, the public petitioned KFC to rebuild it exactly as it was—eyes and beak still moving.  

For local folk, it’s a part of who they are, the landmark that always reminds them where they are. Ask for directions, and you will here, “go to the Big Chicken and….”  I’ve had Delta pilots swear that they know their Atlanta approach by spotting it.  No, it may not be our hometown, but the Big Chicken says a lot about the importance of landmarks and signposts for us.  CS Lewis put it this way: 

When we are lost in the woods the site of the signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, ‘Look!’ The whole party gathers around and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. ‘We would be at Jerusalem.’ ²⁶

                                            ^{C.S Lewis}

                                                       ^{(Few people recall that he died on November 22, 1963)}