For many years our Producers’ Fair featured a special guest: Cocoa the Cow. Cocoa was a poor soul stuck inside a dark, oppressively hot, coffin-like cow costume. The outfit had one of those battery-operated fans installed inside the head piece, which was theoretically designed to help with the heat. But in reality, all it did was blow stale, foul-smelling, very hot air into your face. The wearer of the costume pretty much felt like he was being roasted alive.
I would know. I was Cocoa.
Who is this?
Former Co-op General Manager Terry Appleby as Cocoa the Cow. Okay, not really.
Former Co-op General Manger Terry Appleby and I shared this responsibility, displaying all the cheer one would expect from people volunteering to be incinerated.
It was a good system: One chump would wear the costume for as long as he could stand it (not long), then turn the sweat-soaked outfit over to the other chump. A nice, ripe stench would be left in the first guy’s wake.
For obvious reasons, no one wanted to be the second person to wear the costume. Sometimes Terry and I would thumb wrestle to see who would go first. Usually Terry would just pull rank and remind me who was boss.
I don’t know what happened to that costume. Some people think I may have burned it so I’d never have to wear it again. I’m not telling.
See you Saturday at the Producers’ Fair!
Ken Davis is the Hanover Co-op’s Head Writer.
