So here's the short of it, 
CowPoke 

And here's the long.

In the late 1950's in Southeastern Kentucky when Emily and Gene Howard loaded their kids in the car to go to Grandma's house, to visit Odie and Pap, or any other trip of any length, you could be sure there'd be windows cracked for fresh air (unless it was dead of winter), singing, and at least one game of Cowpoke.

Along the two lane roads of rural Kentucky, we'd pass farms and drive through small towns.  The trips were long and like all children we were sure to get rowdy if not occupied.  Dad came up with the game of Cowpoke to pass the time, and I suppose we thought every car full of kids that we passed on the way was playing Cowpoke too.

Here are the rules.  The car was divided into two teams.  Each team took one side of the road.  Your job was to count every cow that you saw.  The team at the end of the trip with the most cows was the winner.  Goats, sheep, and horses counted premium points - decided upon by Dad at the beginning of every game.  I was a very old adult before I understood that Dad knew every farm along every road we would be traveling and he knew what needed to happen to level the playing field.  So that's a pretty fun game if you think about it, but throw in the wrench!  Anyone who saw a cemetery on either side of the road could yell out "Cowpoke", and the other team was down to zero and had to start all over.  This was a staple of travel in the Howard family car.

I've tried to play this game with our kids.  Freeways aren't very conducive to a good game of Cowpoke.  Even if you're in farm country like driving to Florida or in some of the areas of I-75 up near Lexington (lots of premium points for horses), it's not much fun - there aren't any cemeteries or very few that you can see from a freeway so you're just counting ...  And it's often hard to see the animals on the left side of the road. It's just not the same.

As we drove over to Durham today, we hit a stretch before Asheville, NC where there were cattle and horses to count.  Alan said, "Cowpoke", and I had a rush of memories -- passing a field so full of cows that you couldn't count them all.  coming around a curve and everyone in the car yelling "Cowpoke" as a well known cemetery came into view and having Dad make the judge of who said it first. or passing a little house with a couple of goats after a really dry spell of no cows to count on your side of the road.  I don't remember winning or not winning.  Surely someone won all those games, but it was the face pressed to the window, the excitement of thinking you remembered that there was a cemetery just up this part of the road, or having Dad say from the front of the car - "Now, did you really see 50 cows over there."  -He probably knew the old farmer and knew he would be lucky if there were 15 in his pasture if every single one of them were bunched up together.

So it isn't the winning - it's the golden moment suspended in memory of the five of us in the car driving down a two lane road listening to Mom and Dad singing Little Redwing and counting cows waiting for the chance to yell out "Cowpoke".

Thanks to you Mom and Dad for some wonderful memories.