[Publib] Cows - don't forget Illinois

[Nann Blaine Hilyard]

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/cow.html

Nann
@ZBPL


-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of John
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 11:37 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Cows - don't forget Illinois

Even though I am not a native of the Land of Lincoln, my wife spent many growing-up years in Harvard, just south of the Wisconsin border.  Harvard claims, or claimed (I suspect it surely must be the past tense, by now), that it was the milk capital of the world.  There is a cow, Harmilda--a statue, not a preserved *real* beast--that sits atop a foundation of some sort, as I recall, in or near the heart of town.  Though I believe that Harmilda has been moved since the one time I saw her, on a nostalgic trip to the town of my wife's youth (ca. 1965-1974, when her parents moved farther south in IL).  Seems as if the IL Dept. of Transportation declared Harmilda to be a road/driving hazard, in her original position.

When I--as long as we're on the cheese/cow/milk topic--went to seminary in Wisconsin, I was shocked to discover that we never had real butter in the refectory (fancy theological term for "cafeteria"), and the cheese we were served wasn't necessarily from Wisconsin, nor was some of it anything but "processed American cheese food."  Shocking!  I was *shocked*!!  APPALLED!!! I had grown up with/on margarine, and was looking forward to at least three years' worth of heavenly butter.  Alas.  But there is a happy ending, since my wife (whose family are all cheeseheads, and proud of it, on both maternal and paternal sides) uses nothing but butter in cooking, baking, et al.  

Surely I must have better things to be doing, but I wanted to call Harmilda the Harvard Cow to the world's attention.

John D. Richmond, Director
Alpha Park Public Library District
3527 So. Airport Road
Bartonville, IL 61607-1799
Ph: (309) 697-3822, x. 12
Fax: (309) 697-9681
E-mail: jrichmond at alphapark.org
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