My all-time favorite television show is M*A*S*H (yes, I realize this dates me). Do you remember the one with Five O’Clock Charlie? Hawkeye and the gang recognize “Charlie” by the distinctive sound of his engine. “Charlie” is not a threat because he can’t hit the broadside of a barn with his bomb. At the end of the show, Hawkeye and his cohorts help “Charlie” drop a bomb on a munitions warehouse near the 4077th by painting a gigantic bulls-eye out of hospital sheets. “Charlie” finally hits his target. Remember it now?

What does the M*A*S*H 4077th have to do with our ranch? Well, nothing. It's just that every morning when I hear our feed truck begin it’s trek into the field right next to my house the phrase “Five O’Clock Charlie” runs through my mind.

The kids and I are in the yard or at the window watching and waiting.

I mentally cross my fingers as I hear the whining of the engine as it chugs up the slight incline in the field.

And every morning the feed truck is successful. The cows trailing along behind waiting to get fed.

My kids have absolutely no frame of reference for M*A*S*H, so they liken the feed truck’s daily run to The Little Engine That Could. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Of course this makes much more sense, but so far it hasn’t elicited the same chuckles from the feed truck crew as “Five O’Clock Charlie”. Perhaps the crew is as dated as me?