From the debut of The Cowboy Way, INSP viewers were captivated by the adventures and antics of Alabama working cowboys Bubba, Booger and Cody. But another, perhaps unexpected, star has emerged on this hit show—Booger’s Grandma.
From her dating advice to Booger, that included online dating, to the day she presented him with a pillow for his upcoming wedding, crafted from a shirt that belonged to his beloved grandfather, Neal, Grandma has touched viewers’ hearts. On Facebook, they send her greetings from across the country, they “love” her, call her “the best,” “precious,” “sweet,” “special,” they want to exchange recipes, and many times, they reminisce about their own grandmas. One poignant comment read: “I hope my grandkids love me as much as Booger loves you.” They say she makes them smile, and indeed, she does.
We had the opportunity to chat via telephone with Grandma (yes, she likes to be called “Grandma.”), and she is charming, giving, funny and endearing. When told she gets many compliments on her hairstyle, she laughs in a humble, almost shy way.
We covered a wide range of topics, so let’s get this Q&A started with everybody’s favorite…
Grandma: Butter. I season vegetables with it. I use it in my desserts; I always use butter in my desserts. Mashed potatoes. I always have a lot of butter in them. Very fattening, but we love butter. (She laughs.)
He has occasionally. When I’ve been sick before, he’s made me potato soup. It was good. When anybody in the family is sick that’s what we go to.
I always carry the banana pudding and potato salad. If I have to carry meat it would usually be a like a roast. That would be my potluck meal.
I loved going with my husband, [Neal], to go look at the cattle. When we first got married, we lived out of town on a ranch, and it was about 25 to 30 miles in the woods, and then we didn’t even have a good road to go into town.
I loved going to look at the cattle with him and helping him. When we first started out we went on horseback, and it took all day to make our rounds, and we would take our lunch. It usually was, and this is very odd, we called it white bacon. Some people called it salt pork, but it’s a long strip, and he would hang it up by a woods fire and cook it. And I had boiled a potato, a potato for each one of us, a biscuit, and he would make coffee on the woods fire, and that’s the way we did it in the early days. I said that I was so fortunate that I lived in that era when we could do that, and I really enjoyed it.
[Neal] loved Booger. He loved taking him with him, and Booger loved him. [Booger] really misses his grandpa ‘cause he could talk to him about things.
(We talked about the pillow made from Neal’s shirt given to Booger for his wedding)
I know it really touched Booger. His mother was the one that thought of that, had the lady do that with the shirt. In fact, she had all the grandkids one made, and they all treasure them. Booger really treasures his because he loved his grandpa.
(We talked about horses)
My husband rode a horse called Brownie. He always rode a stud horse. My horse’s name was Mary. (Yes, she rode a mare and he rode a stallion—a combination that could have resulted in quite an adventure, but Grandma said they never had a problem. Now, we know where Booger gets his horse training talent and skills.)
We’d ride in parades and [Neal] usually carried a flag. He never had any trouble with his stud horses. Sometimes when they get around other horses they cause trouble. He never did. He always had a very gentle one. He was a horse that always did what [Neal] wanted him to do.
My husband used to calf rope, and he was very good at it. But whenever he was just riding in the arena, his horse just pranced along, like he was king of the earth. I used to love to watch him in the arena when he was calf roping.