You Belong to the Blue Hen’s Chicken

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, how are you?

This is Janice Johnson, also called Jay. I’m from Hampton, Virginia.

We’re glad to have you, Jay. What’s up?

Okay, whenever I was getting ready to leave home to go a distance, or any of the young people in the family, my grandfather would send us off, and he would say, “Remember, you belong to the land of the blue hen chickens.” I mean, none of us ever knew what he was talking about.

Remember you belonged to the land of the Blue Hens Chicken? That’s how your dad would send you off? Or your grandfather?

My grandfather sent us off with that.

And what did you think he meant?

I had no idea what he meant. I tried at one point to kind of investigate it with a person who’s my mentor in storytelling. And the only thing we could find was something about a regiment in Delaware.

There you go. I still can’t figure out how that would connect to him.

That’s the connection. He didn’t have a connection to Delaware at all?

No, not as far as I know.

Huh. That’s interesting.

Well, yeah, Blue Hens Chicken has referred to someone from or associated with the state of Delaware since at least the 1840s. And before that, it meant a particularly feisty person. And as you suggested, it does go back to a group of soldiers who fought during the Revolutionary War. Supposedly, they wore blue outfits and were noted for their fighting prowess. And they were compared to fighting roosters, gamecocks, bred from the blue hen, which is a type of chicken. And that chicken was known for its strength and aggression and cockfighting. So this troop from Delaware, this group of soldiers, took that name or were given that name. And it later became an emblem of Delaware to stand for it and its people. And even it’s the state bird. The blue hen state is a nickname that Delaware has with pride.

But I don’t know why your grandfather would bring up Delaware if he didn’t have a connection.

Maybe he was just referring to just the idea of being a fighter and being strong and going after what you want.

Yeah. How did you feel when he sent you off that way? Did it straighten your spine?

I don’t know that it straightened my spine. I felt like it must be something special for him to say that. I really couldn’t figure out what the connection was.

That’s our best guess. In any case, we hope that you will remember, you belong to the land of the Blue Hens Chickens. And give us another call sometime. All right, Jay?

All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Take care. Bye.

All right. Bye-bye.

We welcome your calls about anything. Was it something you heard last week or something you heard from a grandparent years ago? 877-929-9673.