WESTMINSTER AL

When I was 16 I had a job as a pot washer and kitchen helper at Westminster prep school in my home town of Simsbury, Connecticut as mentioned in my previous post called "Lost in Translation".

While working there all of the kitchen workers used to eat the meal that would be served to the students right before we opened up to serve them. One of the kitchen workers was a pleasant heavy set lady named Jean. Another person was Al who did some maintenance work at the school.

We used to serve chicken a lot and even when we had something different like meatloaf or spaghetti; Al would often say "chicken ain't nothin' but a bird, chicken ain't nothin' but a bird".
I always thought that that was an Al original expression.

About 4 years ago I heard on the radio "chicken ain't nothing but a bird" as a song. I thought to myself "Huh, what do you know about that?"

Below for your listening pleasure is the recording " A Chicken Ain't Nothing But A Bird" as sung by Cab Calloway in 1935.