After his father died , Daddy told of his family moving in a battered old shack sitting in a open field occupied by a bull and herd of cows. It was really not much better than a barn, just unpainted planks with unfinished walls inside, tin roof visible above the open rafters. The cows offered little threat, but the Jersey bull raged when the cows were in heat. Mettie and the kids had to always had to keep a look out for him when they stepped outdoors to do laundry or fetch water from the well. Mettie kept the little girls close by in case they had to make a run for the house. She and the older boys made sure he was nowhere around before starting across the open field to the road. Continue reading
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Bossy, Budgetting. and the Raffle
I hate to give the impression I’m countrified, but I won a cow once! How many people can honestly say that? Way back yonder, when I first got married, I dipped deep in my grocery money to buy a two dollar raffle ticket from my little sister-in-law. Her 4-H Club was raffling off a heifer. She hadn’t had much luck peddling her tickets, so we sacrificed for her pride, left the pound of ground chuck ($.89), four ounces of loose tea leaves ($.29) ketchup ($.29), and a bottle of imitation of vanilla ($.69) off our grocery list. That brought us close enough that we managed to stay under twenty dollars, but I had to really shop the specials. Mother helped out by giving me a dozen eggs, so we may have even come out a little ahead!
A couple of days later, I got the good news! I won! I won! I’d never won anything before. My win including having my prize hauled to the farm of my choice. Since I had no farm, Daddy said my cow could board with him, a fine, generous offer. As I gloated in my victory, I got another call. Tragedy! Bossy had jumped out of the truck and was lying on the road with a broken leg, getting ready to become hamburger. Fortunately for me, Farmer Brown, the original heifer donor was kind enough to put her out of her misery, scoop her up tenderly with his backhoe, haul her to the meat processing plant, and pay for her transformation into over five hundred pounds of steaks, brisket, roasts, stew meat, and hamburger. I loved Bossy so much.
The Great Cow Hoist
The Great Cow Hoist has been an ongoing argument between Connie and Marilyn for years. At the risk of alienating one of my sisters, as a true witness, I feel obligated to set the record straight. Mother was there as well, but everyone knows how ditzy Mother is. Additionally, she tries to be impartial, so she sees the story both ways, depending on Continue reading
The Doctor’s Office, Lady, Pig, and Cow
The time in our doctor’s waiting room became unexpectedly enjoyable as we sat with an elderly lady and her family. No one had said much beyond “Good morning” till the elderly lady asked her daughter to push her closer so she could admire the ornaments on the tree Dr. Irby had so generously decorated for her patients’ pleasure. She laughed and said, “I am eighty-three years old. I’ve come all the way from chopping wood to people walking on the moon. Oh, I’ve chopped lots of wood.” As she talked on, she cackled as she told this one. “I’ve milked many a cow in my time, many a cow. I remember one time, I was ‘a milking two titties and a pig was ‘a sucking on the other side.” She had us all laughing along with her. We would have loved to spend the rest of the day with her. What a wonderful visit we had!
God, Don’t Let Bessie Die! (1930s Memoir)
Daddy came in to supper, worried to death. Bessie, our cow had had a calf and had “got down.” This was a catastrophe. “Getting down” meant certain death for the cow and a disaster for us. “Oh, Lord! What in the world will we do? We’ve got to have milk for the kids. And we’ll lose the calf, too.” Mama was calm, not panicking, so, I knew this was Continue reading
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