Funny. Just last night I was watching “Son of Flubber” for a little nostalgia trip and I noticed that one of Fred McMurray’s neighbors had a chicken coop in his backyard. This was in what, judging from the housing stock (having grown up in the suburbs in the 1950s I can say this with confidence) was considered back then to be an upper-middle class neighborhood.

I lived in one of Augusta, Ga.’s new post-war, three-bedroom cracker-box suburbs a few notches below Fred McMurray’s neighborhood, and there wasn’t a chicken coop within 10 miles of our little development, even back then. And my parents and my friends’ parents, most only one generation from the farms of rural Georgia, wouldn’t have wanted one anywhere near our little part of the American dream.

Suburbs banned farm animals decades ago for good reasons, most having to do with what health department officials call vector control. But some in Durham want to change that. This just appeared on my neighborhood listserv. It’s from the SEEDS Community Garden people:

It’s time to get a chicken in every yard of Durham. There are 537 signatures on the online petition. What’s the next step? We need to write a proposal to the City Council to get on the agenda, and then we need to be prepared to state our case. I am hoping that some of you may be interested in helping make this happen. Let’s meet Wednesday, March 19, at 6 pm for planning and action assignments at SEEDS Community Garden, 706 Gilbert St. Please invite any and all of your chicken-supporting friends. Light snacks will be provided.

Now, I have nothing against chickens. I love them fried, grilled, broiled, boiled, sauteed, or in a coq au vin. Many a time as a kid I saw my grandmother go out to the coop in her back yard in Cordele, Ga., and wring a chicken’s neck for dinner.

But I don’t want a flock of cluckers in any of my neighbors’ back yards, although I’m sure my cats (and all the loose dogs I read about on the Trinity Park listserv) would love it. I hope our City Council uses some common sense on this issue. There’s a Sam’s Club-size can of worms they’d be opening up if they allowed this to occur, not the least of which would be an influx of foxes or some other chicken-loving varmints.