A Smoking Tradition: Greenberg Turkey

Being featured as one of Oprah Winfrey's "Favorite Things" is a huge deal for any company. Many of the spend lots of money on advertising before Oprah notices them. Greenberg Turkey never spent a dime on advertising during the 70 years of its existence before Oprah crowned it as her favorite turkey in 2003. The sudden exposure changed Greenberg Turkey from a company whose reputation was built solely on word of mouth to one suddenly fielding calls from potential customers all over the country.

Greenberg Turkey began in Tyler, Texas on the dairy farm of Samuel Greenberg in 1938. Greenberg immigrated to Texas from Poland in 1903. He became the shochet, the Jewish leader in charge of killing animals and making them kosher. This ability led him to begin smoking the meats he had butchered. He used the secret mix of spices that his mother had taught him and smoked the meats at the requests of his friends.

That all changed one day in 1938. Someone in Dallas wanted six turkeys for Thanksgiving, so Samuel and his son Zelick got gum boxes from the candy store and packed them with straw. They placed the turkeys in the boxes. They sent the birds on their 100-mile journey to Dallas by train. From this point forward, the Greenbergs were a part of the mail-order turkey business.

Samuel Greenberg's grandson Sam is now in charge of the company. He has seen it grow exponentially during his tenure, despite trying his hardest to keep everything the same for the last 70 years.

"For 70 years we never did any advertising. For 70 years we never even took a credit card. Now that we are 71, I've dabbled in a little advertising. Basically we have grown all by word-of-mouth," said Greenberg.

Besides the Oprah show, Greenberg Turkey was recently featured in the New York Times and has been profiled by Southern Living, Texas Monthly, and National Public Radio. Greenberg began advertising on Facebook this year because of the relatively inexpensive cost of advertising on the social networking site. He also caved in the last few years and began accepting credit cards, a decision he said was tough to make.

"It's not something that I really wanted to do because I'd rather have that call-in and that folksy atmosphere rather than looking like we are some slick corporation," said Greenberg.

Almost all of Greenberg's 200 employees are seasonal workers. Many keep coming back year after year. The smoking season is from September to Christmas Eve. In that time they will smoke around 200,000 turkeys. After that, Greenberg Turkey becomes somewhat of a ghost land with only 10 full-time employees.

"I've got a man in the back that has been here 53 years; I'm only 52 years old," said Greenberg, noting that one of the women working the phones had been with the company for 60 years.

What keeps people coming back?

"It gets in your blood. Everybody gets along, and everybody has fun, and everybody wants to come back."

Redo Matched Action

Matched Action Sequences

Muslims in Oklahoma

Marjan Seirafi-Pour by Garrett Duty and Scott Bedgood

Marjan Seirafi-Pour's toughest moment as a Muslim in Oklahoma came during what was supposed to be a celebration for the state.

Seirafi-Pour was the chairperson of the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council in 2007, when the council decided to give Oklahoma politicians a Centennial Quran to commemorate Oklahoma's 100th birthday. A Baptist group had given Bibles to the politicians, so the council thought it would be acceptable to distribute Qurans as well.

They were wrong. The gift seen by some politicians as offensive. Some denied the Qurans, while the media created a firestorm over this issue. Suddenly Seirafi-Pour and her council were the subject of international outcry regarding their decision.

Despite the negative outpouring by some, Seirafi-Pour said many good things came from the conroversy. The united nature of the Muslim community in Oklahoma provided a strong support group. Though some politicians were rude to her, there were many that were very kind. Her proudest moments as a Muslim in Oklahoma have also involved politicians.

Seirafi-Pour cherishes Governor Brad Henry's iftar dinners.

Iftar is the breaking of the Ramadan fast and Henry was one of the first governors to begin reaching out to the Muslim community by participating in this event. Seirafi-Pour was even nominated by Henry to be part of the Oklahoma Textbook Committee, which helps choose the curriculum for the schools of Oklahoma.

"Governor Henry's inclusiveness and willingness to consider everybody in Oklahoma equal and the same has helped in so many instances," Seirafi-Pour said.

Seirafi-Pour was born in Tehran, Iran, in the 1960s. As a child, she attended schools mixed with boys and girls. That all changed in 1979 when she was about 13. The shah of Iran was overthrown, and the country became the Islamic Republic of Iran. Many reforms were implemented including the segregation of schools by gender.

Her family decided to stay in Iran after the revolution. But the next year, Iraq invaded Iran and began the nearly decade-long Iran-Iraq war. After realizing there was no end in sight, Seirafi-Pour's family decided to move to Oklahoma, where her bothers and sisters had already been in school.

One would think that leaving a war torn country for Oklahoma would be tough, from dealing with a language barrier to experiencing the cultural changes. But, Seirafi-Pour said the most difficult part was something else: "Just like every 15 or 16-year-old girl, leaving the friends and people you have gone to school with for years."

Seirafi-Pour went on to graduate from Carl Albert High School in Midwest Cit. She then get a respiratory degree from Rose State College in Midwest City. Following that, she earned a bachelor's degree in Allied Health Education from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

She has now spent 20 years in the healthcare field. In addition to her healthcare degrees she has a master's in educational psychology from the University of Oklahoma.

She is now working on a master's in international relations. For this degree she is writing her dissertation about the Basij women in Iran. The Basij are a paramilitary force consisting of women that are trained to protect the Revolution.

Seirafi-Pour's work will be the first of its kind, which makes it difficult for her to find references to use. Her ability to speak Farsi, the language of Iran, helps her greatly in her work.

Seirafi-Pour's experiences in the Muslim community of Oklahoma have left her with a distinct sense of pride and optimism about the future.

"I think here in Oklahoma and in general in America that Muslims are being able to achieve what they want and be successful and work hand in hand with others to make America a better place," Seirafi-Pour said.

Fort Sill Officer Clip

Fair Fare

The video uploader for the blog wouldn't work, so I uploaded the video via Youtube.

This selection of pictures represents the controversy surrounding the National Anthem at the OU football game this weekend against Air Force. In the week leading up to the game, there was much discussion over whether the fans should say, "Home of the Brave" at the end or continue the tradition of saying, "Home of the Sooners"at the end of the song. Many say that it is disrespectful to the those that have fought for our freedom, while others are say that it is just a tradition that isn't disrespectful at all. At the game about half of the fans continued the tradition while others refrained because of the opponent. The pictures are of the war memorial outside the Gaylord Memorial Stadium. Many have used the war memorial as an example of OU's commitment to the troops.

The inscription on the War Memorial ends in the word "freedom". Freedom has been at the center of the debate over the "Sooners" tradition. Photo by Scott Bedgood.

The inscription on the War Memorial stating that the stadium and its grounds honor OU students that died for our freedom. Photo by Scott Bedgood

The OU War Memorial and American Flag are juxtaposed against the Gaylord Memorial Stadium. Photo by Scott Bedgood.

Parking Headaches

View from the back of the Duck Pond parking lot. The walk to campus from here can be anywhere from 10-25 minutes.

Estevan Molinar leaves his apartment at Campus Lodge 30 minutes before his class starts in order to make it to class on time. It takes him five minutes to get to campus, and 25 minutes to park and walk to class.

Students at OU have been experiencing serious headaches when it comes to parking this semester. Work is being done on the lot on the corner of Lindsey and Jenkins, which severely limits the number of spots for commuter students.

There are approximately 100 spaces that are missing due to construction near the Huston Huffman Physical Fitness Center that should be regained once that construction is over, said Vicky Holland of the OU Parking Services. That lot should provide some relief until the Lindsey and Jenkins lot is finished.

Estimates for the Lindsey and Jenkins lot are that it will be finished in the Fall of 2010 according to Holland. Until then students will have to make use of the Duck Pond parking lot, which can leave them up to 25 minutes away from their destination on campus.

Students that want to get to class on time should be sure to get to the lots early, or invest in a bicycle.

There are few things that inspire OU students to get up 5 hours earlier than their classes start and one of those things is tickets to the annual football game between OU and Texas.

Kenny Mossman, the Associate Director for Communications at the Athletic Department, said that tickets sold out around the same amount of time this year that they did last year, despite claims that ticket sales took over 8 hours longer this year.

There have also been many rumors about the way in which seats to the Texas game are assigned; some people claim that group tickets are assigned in the order that the groups are created, while others claim that the tickets are assigned to the bigger groups first.

Mossman said that the tickets are assigned completely randomly.

The Sooners will be looking to avenge last year's loss to Texas when they play them on October 2.

I want my blog to consist of issues that concern students on campus. Whether it is sports or news, I want my stories to be thoroughly researched and well written.