A listener who grew up in Ukraine recalls that her family always referred to chicken drumsticks by a name that translates as Bush’s legs. This jocular term refers to an agreement between U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev struck in 1990, during a time of scarcity in the Soviet Union. The agreement called for frozen chicken to be sent from the United States to help stock empty store shelves. Years earlier, under the Lend-Lease program, powdered eggs sent to Russia came to be known by a Russian name that translates as Roosevelt’s eggs. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Bush Legs, or Chicken in the Soviet Bloc Countries”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, my name is Natalia. I’m calling from Sierra Vista, Arizona.
Welcome to the show, Natalia. How can we help you?
Yeah, so I have a question. But first, I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I grew up in Ukraine, in a small village where we had our own chicken. But for some reason, my parents and people around me would call chicken drumsticks Bush’s legs. So apparently after one of the American presidents. And I remember myself being very confused and skeptical at the time my mom offered legs of Mr. Bush for dinner. So I decided to call you guys and find out the origin of this phrase. So just to recap here, you’re from Ukraine and when you were growing up there, the chicken was sometimes called Bush’s legs? Not the chicken itself, but the chicken drumsticks.
The drumsticks. And this was after an American president? Yeah, exactly.
Okay, very good. And now you live in the United States in Arizona? Yeah. And do you still call it Bush’s legs?
Yeah. How do you say Bush’s legs in Ukrainian?
Nozki Busha.
This has got a story back there. I know it does, Martha.
It does indeed. It goes back to the story of an agreement between Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush Sr., which happened in 1990. And were you around then?
No, I’m 25.
Oh, okay. All right. Your mom may remember that during that time, food was somewhat scarce. Certain kinds of food was somewhat scarce in the Soviet Union. And so there was an agreement between George Bush Sr. and Mikhail Gorbachev, which provided for the export of frozen chicken legs to that country. So bush legs became very, very popular at the time because they were bigger than what people had seen, and they were inexpensive and readily available. And apparently there was a joke that was going around at the time that said something like, Bush family members come and go, but the legs are forever.
Really? Wow. I remember that.
Yeah. And interestingly, it’s kind of an echo of back during World War II, under the Lend-Lease Act, the U.S. sent powdered eggs to the Soviet Union to help out people there. And they referred to those dry powdered eggs as Roosevelt eggs. So there might be some kind of parallel there. But the chicken thing, just to put that in perspective, this 1990 deal between these two country leaders was so huge that at one point, 40% of all American chicken exports were going to the Soviet Union. I mean, a staggering amount of chicken was leaving this country and going there. So it flooded the market and there were different breeds of chicken, which explains why they were larger. And of course, they used different antibiotics and chemicals and hormones and stuff.
So I think I’m a little surprised, Natalia, that you still use the term Bush’s legs. What I had read in a couple of my books was that it had faded in the younger generation and that they don’t use the term anymore, but here you are.
Yeah, and I think it’s because when I’m talking to my mom, I use this term, but you never talk about drumsticks with your friends and your peers. So yeah, this word comes up whenever I talk to my mom or to my grandma.
Yeah, okay, that makes a lot of sense. That’s how we get some of our language, right? Especially kitchen table words, kitchen table words we get from our parents.
Right. Thank you so much for your help, and thank you for the wonderful show you make.
Oh, it’s our pleasure. Natalia, can I ask you a favor before we go? Can you say goodbye A Way with Words in Ukrainian?
Yeah, it would be the poboczny, the way with words.
Oh, that’s very nice. Thank you so much. And do call us again sometime, all right?
Yeah, sure.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Take care. If you’ve got an encounter like that, some friction between the two parts of you, your two languages that you speak or the two cultures that you come from, we’d love to work it out with you. 877-929-9673.
