The Three Cowgirls
 

The early days of my childhood were spent growing up on a dairy farm. At the time of this particular true story I was about ten years old and two of my younger sisters also played a part in it.

Now…I don’t know if I was a bossy youngster but whenever it came to choosing games to play it usually ended up with me getting my way. Nola and Janette wanted to do things like play “mud pies” or pick wildflowers. My suggestions were always much more exciting … and dangerous!

 I remember one time I talked my sisters into building a play-house. No…not an ordinary play-house made from two chairs and a blanket, or one made with branches from the trees near the shed, but a real house with two rooms, a bathroom and a washroom. The old house on the farm had been demolished so there was plenty of old timber to be had. After working on the construction for three days we managed to have four posts standing up and three cross beams dangling precariously between them. Unfortunately, that's when dad discovered what we were doing. His thunder was aimed at me because I was the eldest and should have had more sense.

Many “Country and Western” sing-along nights were held at our home. They were the fuel for another one of my bright ideas. I asked my father if we could play “cowgirls” and ride his big black stallion. After getting an ear bashing on the stupidity of even the thought of it… and threatened that if we went near that horse we would all have “ red bums” for a month...I decided I would have to steer my creative mind in another direction.

Well there was Dolly. Now she was so old… she must have been as old as our Granny. She stayed around the shed because feed and water were in easy reach. Yes…I would nominate Dolly for this job. I studied the situation and decided if we pushed her up to the fence of the cow-yard we could climb the structure and mount Dolly from there. After suggesting this to my sisters it wasn't long at all and we had successfully achieved our goal.

She seemed to know what was expected of her and cooperated by gently walking around with the three of us perched on her back. I wanted to go faster and instructed the two girls that when I counted to three we should all give her a good hard kick with our heels.
One…two…three…
Dolly’s bucking reaction to this shock tactic saw the three of us fly over her head on to the ground. It was amazing that we didn’t get hurt. As we dusted ourselves off I made my sisters promise not to tell anyone about the incident for fear of getting into trouble.

At a recent sister's reunion we laughed about the events of the past and clearly remembered the three cowgirl's mishap. With raised glasses, we drank a toast to that beloved creature...
Yes...Dolly was most certainly our favoutite… COW!