What’s a “pussycow”?

A number of my childhood friends are feeling a loss today that I don’t think any of us thought we would feel. Famed car salesman, Cal Worthington, died on Sunday at the age of 92 on his ranch up near Orland, CA. His commercials were a regular sight for our generation in the Southern California area.

Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!

Seriously, the guy sold cars, but all we noticed were the variety of animals paraded about as “his dog Spot”; tiger, a roller skating monkey, a hippo, a bear… honestly I’m not sure I ever saw an actual dog on his commercials. I kept waiting. Was I the only one looking for the dog?

Cal had a catchy tune for his commercials that all of us remember, and for some odd reason near the end when the guys would sing “Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal”, as kids we all heard, “pussy cow, pussy cow, pussy cow”. Until today I had completely forgotten that I misunderstood it that way until I saw posts from my friends on Facebook that they too had misunderstood it as such. Frankly, I hadn’t seen one of his commercials in such a long time it was understandable that I had forgotten.

Though I have no idea if any of my friends ever met him, I do recall that my high school boyfriend worked at one of his car dealerships, we all expressed a feeling as though we’d lost a member of the family. He was so familiar to us with his regular pervasive commercial spots that he’s deeply ingrained in our childhoods.

Cal Worthington, you will be missed.

Here’s a compilation of some of his commercials.