This is a true story about my 10-year-old daughter, Patty, and her problems adjusting from life in Los Angeles to living in the small rural town of Lamar, MO. (reprint of #16)
It was 1976 and Patty was invited to spend the night with a new friend. Now, Patty had been over to this girl’s house numerous times. One of her favorite things to do, while there, was to play with a calf the family kept in the side yard. His name was (key word) Billy.
Somewhere around 6:30 PM I got a frantic call from my daughter.
She was sobbing hysterically and begging me to come and get her. I was alarmed by her plaintiff cries and tried to get her to tell me the problem. She finally blurted out, “Mom, please come and get me, NOW! These people EAT THEIR PETS!”
I later found out that as she was forking a piece of beef into her mouth someone said, “Isn’t BILLY good!" I guess the realization hit her the moment she started to chew. I’ll bet you can guess what happened next!
kt 2010
Being from the Midwest, we often ate the animals that we raised. BUT we naver named them! You name a pet, not the livestock.
ReplyDeletePoor Patty! One thing about growing up as a kid in the big city; I never thought about those packaged meats at the grocery store coming from a live animal. Otherwise I may have been a vegetarian.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, awww, poor thing!!
ReplyDeleteawww! :(
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of some movie my mom always makes me watch where they eat the pet turkey for thanksgiving and all the kids bust out in hysterics when the mom puts it on the table!
I can relate somewhat, my dad's friends are always having their cattle/pork taken in and erm. turned into food. Briefly after moving out on my own, my dad's friend brought over a bunch of When I did eat meat, I'd always make sure I wasn't eating Richard's prized pig or Molly, my uncles cow.
That was very insensitive of that family. They would have to be straight up idiots not to realize that MOST people, especially children aren't raised on farms, eating their cute little friends. It is one thing to acknowledge that your meal came at the expense of a creatures life, it is another to joke about how 'Billy' tasted. Let's just say that those 'jokesters' wouldn't want to end up stranded on a deserted stretch of earth, with no food source, with someone like me. I would have to remind them as I chased them through the woods with a sharp stick that the joke isn't so funny when YOUR flavor will be the dinner topic. Lol!
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