OH THE GAMES THOSE COWS COULD PLAY!!
When I first moved here, my grandson, Luke, was 8 years old. Each Wednesday night he would stay overnight at my house and then I would drive him to school Thursday morning. Both of his parents work, so during the summer months, I would have him a couple of days each week and we would spend the whole day together. When he was younger, the family noticed that he would focus on one particular thing and be totally unaware of anything else around him. His mother had also mentioned to me that he didn’t seem to have much imagination, so I began thinking of fun ways that might expand his awareness and help spur his imagination.
Whatever we were doing or wherever we were going, we often drove by the cow farm on Marvin Road. Partly in an effort to get him to look and notice what was around him and to make him think a little bit, I started pointing out the cows in the field near the road. Then I noted how some were grouped together and others stood farther apart. Soon I was making up stories about what they were doing or suggesting games they might be playing. Luke really got interested in watching the cows each time we passed by and he really got into our story-telling too. We had the most fun thinking of the games that the cows might be playing based on the formations they made while standing in the field. If we saw a cow somewhat hidden behind a tree trunk, we thought they might be playing Hide & Seek. If they were generally lined up one behind another, we figured perhaps they were playing Follow the Leader. If one cow bumped into another cow, we thought they might be playing Tag.
One day as we drove by, Luke noticed that the cows were arranged in three small groups. There were three cows in each group. In the center of the three groups stood one lone cow. Luke looked at that and said, “Look, Grandma, the cows are playing Trivia and the middle cow is the Gina cow asking all the questions!” I had to laugh at that and told him I thought he might be right and that they probably were playing Trivia.
Later when he was a little older, we drove past the cow farm and I noticed that the cows were lined up in two parallel rows. The same number of cows were in each row. I said, “Look, Luke, the cows are getting ready to line dance.” He seemed a bit skeptical and said, “Oh, Grandma, cows can’t line dance.” I said, “They could put their right hoof in and their right hoof out, their right hoof in and shake it all about!” He answered, “That’s the hokey pokey!” I replied, “Yes, but if they can do the hokey pokey, they can line dance!” He thought a moment and then said, “I guess you’ve got me there.”
Once the farmer sold the first group of cows, the second group didn’t seem to be nearly as playful. But for a couple of years, we enjoyed the antics of the first group of cows on a very regular basis.
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