Cowabunga Dude

 Cowabunga Dude
For those who are as old as I am or for those who are up to date on television history, you will remember the Howdy Doody Show. It was a kid’s program with a smiling freckle faced marionette named Howdy Doody and the emcee Buffalo Bob. Howdy was dressed in jeans and a gingham shirt while Bob had a fringed buckskin jacket. Later when television shows were colorized, we found out that Howdy had red hair and freckles.
Supporting characters we grew to love were the silent Clarabell the Clown, Chief Thunderthud, and Princess Summerfall Winterspring. One of the key words was Cowabubga to express surprise. There were other marionette and human characters as well as an audience of children.
This phrase word popped back into my vocabulary when Stephen the summer intern was helping to prepare for our church’s summer vacation Bible school. Once the theme for the skits and lessons were decided by our pastor, we began the task of rounding up and creating the props necessary to decorate the dais and classrooms. The theme was “on the farm,” with areas to represent silos, barns, farm market, and the interiors of farmhouses.
Sheep from past Christmas plays were extracted from storage, but our Pastor wanted life-sized cows to peer out of the baptistry. I was helping decorate elsewhere when I stumbled on Stephen and Pastor trying to create the cows. Their idea to use 2 x 4’s for the frame and heads of the cows seemed to be way too heavy and bulky. I saw several gallon-sized water jugs and noticed their shape of the bottoms was nearly the same shape as a cows nose, thus our “cows” took shape.
Since then I’ve teased Stephen with cow items like the candy Cow Tails, a cow greeting card, and Milk Duds. Last week I found a cow costume, full sized and adult. I couldn’t resist. It’s on its way the North Carolina where Stephen is completing his senior year at Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, North Carolina. Cowabunga dude, I hope you like it and that it brightens your day.