CQB27
US Veteran
The city/county that I live in is typical of one that transitioned from mainly a agricultural economy at the turn of the century to what it is today, a mostly industrial and medical fueled economy. As a result we have pockets of the past scattered throughout. The remnants of small family farms here and there, old tractors and equipment scattered about the old homesteads. Growing up on a farm, passing by these glimpses back into my childhood warm my heart.
I pass such a place every day driving into work. In fact it's only about a half a mile down the road. A little old farm house (vacant these days), built out of river rock hauled from the Etowah river that is about a mile away as the crow flies. 20 or so Black Angus cows dot the pasture. What's left of the farm, a long and kind of narrow 40 acre patch of pasture land has long been overwhelmed by the modern world. The old homestead, farm equipment and pasture sit wedged between a subdivision on one side, a row of duplexes and an apartment complex on the others, and across the road what used to be pasture land is now a country club/golf course.
On the way to work this morning as I descended a small hill and rounded the curve, there in the middle of road looking confused and stressed was a young black angus cow. She looked to be about 16 months or so I guessed...big, but not as big as she would get in the next 8 months. Now the traffic this time of year at 7:45 in the morning is not as thick as usual. Summer months with schools out and folks vacationing do that. But the visibility due to dips and curves in the road, coupled with folks generally driving too fast and with too little of attention make this cow in the road a hazard.
I drive an unmarked car, but I do have blue lights hidden away in the grill/front and rear windows/rear bumper. I hit the blue lights and stopped. I called dispatch, and advised them what I had. The dispatcher replied they had the owner's number and would alert them. I replied I would try and get the cow out of the road in the mean time. I looked around and quickly came up with a plan. I decided to try and get the cow back up the driveway to the farm house. Then at least she would be about 50 yards from the roadway, have a little grass to eat to pass the time, and I could just keep her hemmed up there until the owner arrived.
I turned off my blue lights, squeezed my car ever so gently passed her, turned around and gigged my trusty steed and stared back toward her. Luckily the golf course side of the road was fenced too and she stayed on the road and headed back toward the house. When we approached the driveway I made my move and turned her right up the driveway. As she headed toward the back of the house I noticed there was a gate in the back corner of the backyard. I stopped the car in a spot that I thought might discourage her from hitting the highway again as she rounded the backside of the house. I ran to the gate and praise the Lord, it didn't have a lock on it! I quickly opened it up, ran around the front side of the house and got to the other side just in time to coax the girl back toward the back yard and the gate. As we headed around the back yard I thought for a minute she was going to slip past the car. But when she saw the open gate she took off at a trot and hustled into the pasture mooing loud, telling all the other heifers and a bored looking bull who was ignoring everybody she was home! When I got back to the car I told the dispatcher she was back in the pasture for now, but the owner had a spot somewhere in the fence line that needed fixing.
Now here's the funny part. I got to work and settled in and began to notice I had this strange little warm feeling inside. A kind of bubbling of joy that was that trickling out of my heart into the rest of me. I thought about it for a minute. It was strange to me at first because it was way above the reaction I should have had for simply doing my job, helping out a man who needed it. I thought a little more, then it hit me!
The way I was feeling wasn't because I had done a small, really insignificant thing. It was all about that cow. The cow and the morning events took me back to a time in my youth when the few cows we had were vital to our well being. They were food on the table, money to pay the bills and put shoes on our feet and clothes on our back. They were hard work that paid off and made a young man feel proud about making his way. They were precious to us. Not cute animal precious. But hope for a future, return on hard work, a way to make it a little further along the road of life precious. To lose one was heartbreaking. To think you lost one and finding it and bringing it home was overwhelming joy! That cow brought me back to those days. Days when in my youth my biggest concerns were doing my part for a family that loved me, "making a hand" around the farm. Days when a new calf was better than a new truck. Finding that cow stirred up the deep recesses of my past. Those long ago memories that are embedded deep inside my heart came to life again for a few minutes. I felt like that cow was ours. She was gone and we found her and she was none the worse for wear. I know that cow's not mine.....but boys I'm telling you that small fact just don't matter to me right now.
Today's been a good day.
I pass such a place every day driving into work. In fact it's only about a half a mile down the road. A little old farm house (vacant these days), built out of river rock hauled from the Etowah river that is about a mile away as the crow flies. 20 or so Black Angus cows dot the pasture. What's left of the farm, a long and kind of narrow 40 acre patch of pasture land has long been overwhelmed by the modern world. The old homestead, farm equipment and pasture sit wedged between a subdivision on one side, a row of duplexes and an apartment complex on the others, and across the road what used to be pasture land is now a country club/golf course.
On the way to work this morning as I descended a small hill and rounded the curve, there in the middle of road looking confused and stressed was a young black angus cow. She looked to be about 16 months or so I guessed...big, but not as big as she would get in the next 8 months. Now the traffic this time of year at 7:45 in the morning is not as thick as usual. Summer months with schools out and folks vacationing do that. But the visibility due to dips and curves in the road, coupled with folks generally driving too fast and with too little of attention make this cow in the road a hazard.
I drive an unmarked car, but I do have blue lights hidden away in the grill/front and rear windows/rear bumper. I hit the blue lights and stopped. I called dispatch, and advised them what I had. The dispatcher replied they had the owner's number and would alert them. I replied I would try and get the cow out of the road in the mean time. I looked around and quickly came up with a plan. I decided to try and get the cow back up the driveway to the farm house. Then at least she would be about 50 yards from the roadway, have a little grass to eat to pass the time, and I could just keep her hemmed up there until the owner arrived.
I turned off my blue lights, squeezed my car ever so gently passed her, turned around and gigged my trusty steed and stared back toward her. Luckily the golf course side of the road was fenced too and she stayed on the road and headed back toward the house. When we approached the driveway I made my move and turned her right up the driveway. As she headed toward the back of the house I noticed there was a gate in the back corner of the backyard. I stopped the car in a spot that I thought might discourage her from hitting the highway again as she rounded the backside of the house. I ran to the gate and praise the Lord, it didn't have a lock on it! I quickly opened it up, ran around the front side of the house and got to the other side just in time to coax the girl back toward the back yard and the gate. As we headed around the back yard I thought for a minute she was going to slip past the car. But when she saw the open gate she took off at a trot and hustled into the pasture mooing loud, telling all the other heifers and a bored looking bull who was ignoring everybody she was home! When I got back to the car I told the dispatcher she was back in the pasture for now, but the owner had a spot somewhere in the fence line that needed fixing.
Now here's the funny part. I got to work and settled in and began to notice I had this strange little warm feeling inside. A kind of bubbling of joy that was that trickling out of my heart into the rest of me. I thought about it for a minute. It was strange to me at first because it was way above the reaction I should have had for simply doing my job, helping out a man who needed it. I thought a little more, then it hit me!
The way I was feeling wasn't because I had done a small, really insignificant thing. It was all about that cow. The cow and the morning events took me back to a time in my youth when the few cows we had were vital to our well being. They were food on the table, money to pay the bills and put shoes on our feet and clothes on our back. They were hard work that paid off and made a young man feel proud about making his way. They were precious to us. Not cute animal precious. But hope for a future, return on hard work, a way to make it a little further along the road of life precious. To lose one was heartbreaking. To think you lost one and finding it and bringing it home was overwhelming joy! That cow brought me back to those days. Days when in my youth my biggest concerns were doing my part for a family that loved me, "making a hand" around the farm. Days when a new calf was better than a new truck. Finding that cow stirred up the deep recesses of my past. Those long ago memories that are embedded deep inside my heart came to life again for a few minutes. I felt like that cow was ours. She was gone and we found her and she was none the worse for wear. I know that cow's not mine.....but boys I'm telling you that small fact just don't matter to me right now.
Today's been a good day.
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