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My dad was a born practical joker. I had seen him pull off many
of his pranks and heard of lots of others, but one of the best I
heard about several years after he died. It was told to me by one
of his fellow workers.

The year was 1945 and we were living on his uncles ranch. Dad
always kept some pigs and two or three jersey cows. At that time
you could make some extra money selling cream. Most towns at
that time had creameries that bought from local farmers.

A couple of years before this dad had gone to work for the railroad.
The story goes that dad came in late to work one morning. The
foreman met him at the timeclock.

"Sam," he said, "I see you're rather late this morning. Did you have
an accident?

At the time the railroad would give demerit points for being late
without a good reason. Get enough points and you would lose your
job. So dad did some fast thinking.

"I sure did," he said. "My cow fell in the well."

The foreman looked a little surprised and paused for a moment,
then said, "Your cow fell in the well! I've heard of that happening
before. What I'd like to know is, how did you get her out?"

"Do you remember me telling you about that real good jersey milk
cow I had?" dad asked him.

"I sure do," the foreman replied.
"Well, it was her," dad said. "So I just climbed down in the well
with her and started milking and floated her out."

The foreman just shook his head, turned around and walked off.

John Watson

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