100 years ago in Spokane: Turkey meets its fate after golf course hiatus on the South Hill

“Somebody’s Christmas dinner went ‘flooey,’ ” read The Spokesman-Review, when a live turkey flew out the back door of the Manito Grocery at 30th Avenue and Grand Boulevard.

The bird had been next in line to be slaughtered with an ax in the store’s back room.

“Nix!” thought the gobbler, The S-R wrote.

“With a wild leap he fluttered and flew through the rear door, gaining confidence and speed, soared into the air, clearing the trees that border the first tee of the old (Manito) golf course across the street,” the paper wrote.

A crew from the store gave chase and finally found the bird “in the trap and bunker on the short eighth hole.”

The men nabbed the turkey and took him back to the store, where he met his fate.

From the moonshine beat: Harvey Johnson, 40, was the latest victim of a common Prohibition-era peril.

He drank too much poisonous denatured alcohol and soon complained of feeling ill before going to bed. Several hours later some of the other men sleeping in the Workmen’s Home on Main Avenue reported hearing him “making a noise.”

The next morning, they discovered he was dead.

Also on this date

(From onthisday.com)

1917: The 18th Amendment, authorizing prohibition of alcohol, is approved by the U.S. congress and sent to the states for ratification.

1964: Filming is completed for “Star Trek: The Original Series” pilot “The Cage.” Although it never aired, some footage was re-used in the two-part episode “Menagerie.”