The "Cow Head In The Tree" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading in my Lancaster Sunday News a weekly article titled "I Know A Story."  These are stories submitted to the newspaper by subscribers to the local newspaper.  This particular article was titled "Cow head in a tree attracted police attention" and was submitted to the newspaper by reader Anne Alban.  Began with...It was August 1958 when my husband Don was ready to attend Lancaster School of the Bible to study for the ministry.  He had worked the year before at Hanover General Hospital to get enough money to go to school and the time finally arrived.  When his mom and dad took him to the campus their eyes fell on a "unique dormitory," which was the carriage house, with a large three-story mansion in front of it, that happens to be the girls dorm facing Chestnut Street.  Unpacking, in his assigned dorm room, he was informed that he would have a roommate, Van.  Of course, Van was not in the dorm at the time, as he was spending time with his girl, Kathy.  Most fellows do not have a theme decor when they've in a dorm, but Don, having spent a few summers working at River Valley Ranch in Millers, Maryland, was a bit homesick, and wanted something on the wall to remind him of the great summers that he worked as a ranch boy at RVR.  Therefore, along with his purple cowboy boots, he pondered.  "Ah, I need a cow head - it would be pretty cool to hang over my bed," he thought.  Since his roomie was a missionary kid from Africa, that probably would also help Van feel "more at home."  As the weeks moved on, and he made new acquaintances with other students, Don met a young student named Elsie.  It did not take long for him to learn that her dad worked at the Lancaster Stockyards.  So, Dan got his courage up one day to ask Elsie, "Do you think your dad could get me a cow head from the stockyards?"  Elsie eventually asked her dad, and he surprisingly said yes.  Finally, the requested item arrived, probably in a bag because Elsie did not feel too good carrying the huge head in the dorm where others could see it, since it still had flesh and meat hanging off it.  Don reasoned how he could dry it out, and his dorm room was certainly not the place.  So he spied a large tree in the schoolyard, right next to the dorm, that would be a good choice.  One day he found a ladder and climbed over the stone wall, pulling the ladder behind him.  Climbing the tree, he pulled the head on a rope behind him until it was pretty far up.  He anchored the head securely on a branch, descended, and went back to the dorm.  A few days later, coming home from class, Dan and his friend Mel, glanced over at the schoolyard, where he saw a young boy and a police officer pointing up in a tree.  "Oh-oh, I'd better go see what's up!"  He thought.  So, climbing the wall, they came face to face with the officer.  "So you know anything about that cow head up there?" he asked.  "Yes sir, I do," Don timidly responded.  At that moment, friend Mel "fled the scene" and quickly departed for the dorm, leaving Don there all along.  "Well, there was a cow stolen from Peach Bottom last weekend.  Would this by any chance be part of that cow?"  Don quickly responded by explaining where he got the head.  "Well, I need some confirmation on what you are telling me," the officer said.  Don knew he had to work fast, so he contacted Elsie and asked if her dad could validate that he got the head for him.  Her dad confirmed with the police that this was not the head of the stolen cow.  After all the work to prepare the wall hanging, Don and Van could not figure out where to put it because of the walls.  They considered displaying it on the roof of the boys dorm, but sadly, the slant of the roof made that impossible.  So where did the splendid cow head end up?  It found its resting place in the dumpster behind the barn.  Maybe a cowboy hat and a lasso would be a better idea!  And...so goes the story of the cow head, be it true or false!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.