Lovable Ham

For Christmas dinner, Rocky and Sabrina, among other foods, had ham.  When time to go they asked did anyone want any food and we leaped for some leftover ham.

We have been eating ham sandwiches all week and we are about to finish it off today by throwing the hambone in with cooking black-eye peas.

It reminded me of the Dogpatch Ham.

If you haven't heard of the Dogpatch Ham:  It was a big ham in the LI'L ABNER comic strips created by Al Capp.  It looks  about half the size of a grown human.  It looks like the stereotyped ham, big on one end and slim as a small neck on the other end.

The Dogpatch Ham is a living creature.  Any ham you slice off it instantly replaces itself.   It is also a family member with a higher ranking than the family dog.  After all, it's main purpose is to get the family through hard times, which Dogpatch citizens are always in hard times. 

I remember one story in the LI'LABNER comic strips when Li'l Abner married Daisy Mae.   On their Honeymoon in what was a fancy hotel (when his parents honeymooned there) the disgruntled bellhop was mad because he didn't receive a nice tip jump in their room shooting.  The only person he shot was the Dog Patch Ham.  Li'l Abner reacted worse than if his new bride was shot.  Luckily, he (or a doctor - I forgot) got the bullet out and he carried to ham back home out of harm's way.  He forgot about Daisy Mae.

I hope now you feel like you know more than when you woke up this morning.