A Town with Egg on Its Face
by Karen Williams - Oviedo Voice - Feb. 17, 2005
They lied to me. Those people that live around here lied to me.
When I came to Seminole County five years ago, intent on finding a home in Oviedo, people told me that Winter Springs was just as good—excellent schools, low crime, civic pride. I bought it hook-line-and-sinker, and I also bought a home in Winter Springs, utterly oblivious to the fact that Winter Springs is NOT up to speed with Oviedo—that it desperately lacks a key component: the chickens that roam near the Oviedo post office.
Being one to take people literally, I searched high and low for the Winter Springs chickens after I moved here. I patrolled Tuskawilla Road, Winter Springs Blvd., and 434, eager for a glimpse of a wing, a tail feather, or the faint echo of a cock-a-doodle-doo. Nothing. Oh sure, I saw egrets, herons, an owl or two, a bald eagle here and there. But what’s that to a girl who grew up in Indiana and misses the flora, fauna, and creatures of her homeland?
After years of bitter disappointment, I hereby implore the Winter Springs commission to invest in some roosters and hens to populate the new town center. As in Oviedo, the storeowners can throw grain to the birds. As in Oviedo, egg hunts will no longer be confined to Easter. As in Oviedo, if an officer stops us for driving erratically, we’ve got an excuse: chickens chasing each other and dodging in and out of traffic.
Well no, the Winter Springs birds won’t be able to strut their stuff outside a Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken and Biscuits, as the Oviedo chickens do with such bold irony. But the Winter Springs fountains will offer one heck of a birdbath.
I moved to this area fervently believing that there was a chicken in every pot and also a chicken (or two) in every downtown lot. Let’s give Winter Springs some local color in the form of a blue and tan rooster or two.
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Copyright 2005, Karen Williams
