Elm Farm Ollie

Elm Farm Ollie, known in the barnyard as “Nellie Jay,” became the first cow in history to fly in an airplane. On February 18th of 1930, this Guernsey flew from Bismarck, Missouri, to St. Louis, Missouri, as a part of the International Air Exposition. During this 72 mile flight, she was milked to allow scientists to observe midair effects on mammals. Elsworth Bunce, a native of Wisconsin, milked Elm Farm Ollie making him the first man to milk a cow in mid-flight. This milk was sealed into paper cartons and parachuted to the St. Louis spectators.


Personally, I want to know if the plane hit any turbulence. That would have made some excellent butter! Barry Levenson popularized this story in his fictional account The Bovine Cantata in B flat Major (from Madam Butterfat, by Giacomo Moocini). Moooving on…

I wonder how Elm Farm Ollie would have described her journey to Daisy, Bessie, and Lunabelle (the cow that jumped over the moon)? How could a cow depict tree tops, birds in flight, clouds, seeing rooftops and streets from above, viewing seven or eight entire fields at a time? Would the cows even believe her?


We humans are much like those cows back in the barnyard. None of us have left planet earth, some have not left this continent, or country, or state. We see our small part of the world, but there is so much more. God sees and knows everything. When He tells us about life, how we are supposed to live, the future, we need to listen very carefully and obey Him promptly. God tells us, for example, that this life is not everything. He offers us eternal life (John 3.16; Romans 3.23, 6.23; Acts 16.31). He says that we can trust Him for our future… Learn to look at life from God’s perspective and trust Him for everything. (Mark 8.27-33)

Caveat Lector: The Biblical application is not fully developed, but rather just some thoughts to be turned into a council time later.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elm_Farm_Ollie
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2009/02/19/south/special_feature/0218ssj-week0.txt