BlB— Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 10,1981 Winner by a ‘finger’ BY DICK ANGLESTEIN LANCASTER Who’s the champion celebrity “hand-milker” of Lancaster County? He’s a former New England dairy farm lad turned electronic humorist and satirist. He’s Wendell Woodbury, of WGAL-TV, Channel 8. Wendell, who admits to being off that hilly, rocky Maine dairy farm for a few years took on all celebrity comers Friday, Oct. 2, in down town Lancaster and lived up to his self-endowed nickname of “Fingers.” Photos 1 and 2 show some of his form. Wendell hails from Morrill, Me., where his father still has a mixed herd of Holsteins and Jerseys. “I used to be a substitute milking machine.” "We had milking machines when I was on the farm yet,” he ex plains. “But they were always breaking down and that’s when they called, on me. I guess you could say I was a substitute milking machine.” It was obvious in his competition with leading captains of business, industry and “state” in Lancaster County that Wendell was somewhat of a “ringer.” He talked to his cows and let them know he was there before starting. And he must have warm milker hands. “One of the cows had smaller teats,” he said. “I had to change my grip then and went more to a fingertip grasp.” “I had to rewrite the script.” But Wendell performed with three of the four cows present and coaxed the most milk from all of them. “I had to rewrite the script for the news segment,” he explains. “I didn’t actually want to win but I did.” And from his Lancaster County milking debut, Wendell and his cameraman put together another change-of-pace piece of TV journalism that has attracted many fans in Channel B’s coverage area. It ranks right up there with his “Flying with Santa” segment on Christmas Eve. But Kim is a lot prettier. On his way to the milking title, Wendell even had a pull-off with ’ ♦ I < ' ' f Ueo ureiaer, Lancaster County Dairy Princess, Photo 3. Photo 4 shows fellow Channel 8 staffer, Kun Lemon, of “PM Magazine,” (.Maybe she can’t milk as well as you, Wendell, but she’s a lot prettier.) Photo 5 shows John Barley, who donated the cows for the Ag Expo, propping them with teat wipe. Mayor uses his head < 5 Wendell Woodbury - " * ■t * W- " ' Photos B and 7 show the form of two governmental leaders. Mayor Art Morris dons his cap baseball catcher style and puts his head right into it. (Perhaps, he’s used to . butting his head up against a brick wall.) And County Commissioner Jean Mowery sits back a bit to get a better idea of the overall picture. And Wendell, just in case your milking fame goes to'your head, I found two spectators who didn’t >*>* " *. >JT % ' -* - 1 » j-** ‘V „ z even know you. Photos 8 and 9 show them. It’s a grandmother and granddaughter (.1 believe) and they couldn’t care less about the displaced barnyard shenanigans going on in Lancaster Square. After all, they’ve seen plenty of cows being milked. I love you, Gran'ma.
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