May 26, 2007
A Repost of sorts....
HomefrontSix has this hysterical post about pets, children and well......the chain of life. (Links fixed - thanks HFS!)
It reminded me of a story I've told a hundred times and posted a couple of years ago. In honor of HFS, and since I have some new readers I thought I'd repost it again today.
Where's T-Bone?
The Cheesemistress serves as a muse again! This post spun off a memory that always puts a smile on my face.
Back in my first life I had a granddaughter. Three actually. Oh - I was only 27 but I was still Gamma. The oldest was a beauitful, smart as a whip little angel - Alyssa. What a trip she was.
Anyway, as I've mentioned before, we raised beef cattle. Just a small operation - enough for our families and some friends. And we started out small. Real small. We started out with 1. His name was T-Bone.
T-bone quickly became the family pet. Except for me. Having been around farm animals most of my life I knew better. But no one listened to me.
Ex would take Alyssa out and let her play with T-Bone. Ride him like a pony. Every time she came over that was the first thing she had to do. Go out and play with T-Bone.
Well, as was bound to happen the day finally came around that T-Bone went to the butcher. No one told Alyssa - I figured it was his responsibility. Lucikly for us she missed the loading and hauling of off old T-Bone. But she was there when he came home!
I had made, ironically enough, some t-bones on the grill for dinner that night. Made all the appropriate stuff to go with it,a celebration of sorts, but T-Bone was the guest of honor.
Ex had just brought in the steaks and Alyssa came running into the kitchen - Gamma! Gamma! Where's T-Bone? Where is he? I wanna ride!
Ex: Here Alyssa. Try this.
Alyssa: Ohh that's very good steak Papa. But where's T-Bone? I miss him.
Ex: Here, try another piece.
And on it went. I had to leave the room. I didn't know how I would explain to this sweet 4 year old why Gamma was laughing so hard.
He never did tell her what happened to T-Bone. My response was always - "Ask your Papa."
Cruel? Maybe - but damn that was some good meat. Let me tell you!
Posted by Tammi at May 26, 2007 09:04 AM | TrackBackI was raised on a farm... you do learn very quickly not to name the calves, chickens, rabbits, hogs, etc... only the horses, and some of them are sold and gone as well.
But it's a great way to grow up! :)
Posted by: pam at May 26, 2007 10:52 AMWhen Elderspawn was really little I taught him the food names of the animals before he knew their real names.
(Grau points at a cow) "Look! It's a beef!"
http://homefrontsix.blogspot.com/2007/05/daddys-wisdom-or-george-and-niles.html
Don't know why I don't have permalinks available. Sorry!
Posted by: HomefrontSix at May 26, 2007 02:05 PM