Thursday, May 05, 2011

Jody's name

A reader commented that she loved my calf's name, Jody.  Therein lies a story.
In 1962, the corrugated box plant (Alton) where my dad was employed moved from North Kansas City, Missouri, to Blue Springs.  At that time, Blue Springs was a small town east of Kansas City, not the metropolis it's become today.
My parents bought a house just outside the city limits of the little town, about a half-mile up the road from Adams' Dairy.  There was a rental property across the road that belonged to a retired doctor in Kansas City, a Dr. Gilkey, who had bought it as an investment.  The old two-story house there was occupied by various renters for a long time; the surrounding pasture that went with the property sat vacant most of the time, except for a brief period when a man rented it for his horses.  
Finally both the house and pasture became available to rent, and my parents sold their house and moved across the road to the Gilkey place.  They were renters once again, but they had a wonderful back-to-the-land period in their lives.  Daddy put out huge gardens, with my mother canning, drying, and freezing everything she could possibly raise.  A local butcher, Richard Dent, told them they could have his three-quartered Holstein cow to milk if they would supply his family of six with milk.  
I think the half-angus calf this Holstein gave birth to was Jody, one of the cows we eventually bought from my parents.  
One of my mom's Avon customers had a couple of bred dairy heifers they had raised from babies, and my parents bought them:  Their names were Beauty and Suzy; Beauty was Guernsey, and Suzy was some sort of mix of Guernsey, Jersey, and/or Brown Swiss.  
Those two cows also gave birth, and there must have been some others around, too.
Because I remember why my mother named that group of calves as she did.  
Her favorite TV show that year was "A Family Affair", starring Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot.  So she named the calves that year after the characters:  Uncle Bill, Mr. French, Buffy, and Jody.  
On the show, Jody was a little boy, but my mom paid no attention to that, and named the Holstein cow's little black heifer Jody.   
The first milk cow we bought from my parents was Suzy; the second was Jody.  
I named my new calf Jody just for these memories, because she bears no resemblance to the first Jody at all.  


That old Gilkey place still sits empty, growing weeds.  It has to be worth a fortune, and I can't help wondering who owns it and why they've never sold it during a real estate boom and made millions.   Hmmm, we're going to Blue Springs today.  Maybe I'll take a picture or two.  
Oh, and Adams' Dairy is no more, but all over Blue Springs you will find roads and housing additions and shopping plazas with "Adams Dairy" incorporated into their names.



8 comments:

  1. When you named Jody, my first thought was of Buffy and Jody. You have an unbelievable memory. Vicki

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  2. I actually Googled "Family Affair" yesterday as I was trying to remember Brian Keith's character's name. My husband doesn't remember the doll Mrs. Beasley but she always gave me the creeps.
    You do have a wonderful memory.

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  3. Lindie1:21 PM

    They tore down the old dairy and put up a title office. Years ago I met the people who then owned the old house. I had always been interested in it until I got to work with the owners of it. Dirty people! I bought the Mrs Beasley doll for my oldest daughter and when her sister broke it, I had to buy another.

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  4. Interesting entry. Our preacher's name is Jody. You did want to know that, didn't you? lol

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  5. You have some good memories and naming you new calf Jody will keep them with you a little longer too. I love your reminiscences of days past. I'm not so good with doing that or with having so many good memories of my childhood. Mostly it seems they went by in a blur.Enjoy your trip. It's a lovely day here in Ohio.

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  6. I enjoyed hearing the story of Jody's name. I loved that TV show, FAMILY AFFAIR too.

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  7. Wow, Family Affair. That takes me back. Now I have the theme song playing in my head. I love reading your rambles down memory lane. Good luck with your surgery!

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