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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Husband and Wife (08/08/14)

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• TITLE: Momma Cow Daddy Horse | Previous Challenge Entry
  By Brenda Rice
  08/12/14
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I was eight years old when I asked my grandpa a question that caused him to send me home to my mother. At least that’s how I remember it. I asked Grandpa why---wait a minute let’s back up a bit before I tell you what I asked him.

I grew up on my grandparent’s farm in a small southern town. Grandpa had chickens, cows and 2 mules that I called horses. They were big.

Almost every spring the cows had calves. I loved watching the calves romping in the meadow below my grandparent’s home while their mothers grazed nearby. Just before dark, Grandma and Grandpa called the cows from the meadow to the barn where they were milked. I watched Grandma milk each cow through slates in the fence while the warm milk made a shrill sound against the metal bucket. She always left enough milk for the hungry calf.

In another pen Grandpa called “the lot” the mules were watered and fed. Under my close observation I realized the horses had to be the daddies because they never had babies. Only the cows had babies so naturally, I surmised they were all mommies. This leads back to the question I asked Grandpa.

“Grandpa, why do the babies always look like the mommies?”

"Uh?" Puzzled Grandpa looked down at me and asked, “What babies are you talking about?”

“The cow babies. They always look like their mother the cow. They never look like their daddy the horse.”

His puzzlement turned to frustration and he said, “Girl, you need to go home and talk to your momma.”

At eight it made perfect sense to me. Cows are girls so they are mommies and mommies are wives. Horses are boys so they are daddies, and daddies are husbands.

I don’t remember my discussion with Mom that day, but soon after I remember asking her more questions about families and husbands and wives. “Momma, why doesn’t my cousin George have a momma?”

“George has a momma, honey. She lives in Montana.”

“So, she’s Uncle Charlie’s wife?” I asked seriously.

“Let’s talk about this later when you are older, okay?”

“But I have a daddy and a mommy living here in my house. Why doesn’t George’s family look like ours?”

‘Well sweetie, families can look different. Some families have a Grandma instead of a mommy. The children are raised by their grandparents, but they are still a family. Like Uncle Charlie there are daddies raising their children without a mommy living in the same house. Uncle Charlie was once a husband. He loves George very much and they are a happy family, too.”

I pondered on Mom’s words along with my own observations. After thinking for a while, I concluded I was glad my momma and daddy lived in the same house with me, and that Dad was a husband and Mom was a wife.

At some point, I learned bulls fathered calves and mules are hybrids that do not reproduce. But given the information I had at the time, I don’t feel so bad about my conclusions. When I told my husband this story from my childhood, he laughed and said he had had some odd ideas too.

Wonder what they were?

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