Water Cooler

MILWAUKEE (CBS) ― It was a crisp early spring Saturday morning in the small farming community of Campbellsport, Wis., 42 miles north of Milwaukee, the largest city in "The Dairy State."

President Gerald R. Ford, the only chief executive never to have been elected to that office or to the office of vice president, was trying to win the presidency outright. He was campaigning for the Republican nomination, and the Wisconsin primary would be three days later.

Somebody connected to Ford's campaign thought it would be a good idea for the president to visit the Peter and Laverne Senn farm and tour their dairy barn. It was, after all, on the way from West Bend, where the president had overnighted following a campaign event, to Fond du Lac, where he was headed for a midday rally.

Little did anyone know that the leader of the free world would be assaulted by a boorish bovine's bothered bowels.

Actually, you might say the Senns suspected it could happen.

"We had warned the people in charge that hey, these are cows," Laverne recalled this week for Newsradio 620 WTMJ, a Milwaukee radio station. "When there's new people around, they sometimes get excited."

In fact, the Senns admonished Ford's advance team that the president should wear coveralls.

"They didn't want that," she said.

So, sure enough, when the president and his entourage, including several reporters and photographers, toured the barn, one of the cows got excited. It befouled the president's britches.

Not to worry, though. Gerald Ford was a Midwesterner - from Grand Rapids, Mich., just across Lake Michigan from Wisconsin - and he had no doubt been on a dairy farm or two.

"It didn't seem to phase him," said Laverne. "He took it all in stride, like he was just an old farmhand."

Luckily, an aide was carrying a spare suit for Ford, and he was able to change clothes before eating breakfast with the Senn family. During that meal, Laverne recalled, it was evident the incident had not affected the president's disposition. He charmed them by not trying to charm them.

"He was so friendly," she said. "He was so easy to visit with. He didn't put on any airs. He just made you feel like he was a common, ordinary guy."

The incident with the cow didn't seem to have any impact on Ford's appetite, either. He chowed down on a genuine Wisconsin breakfast, cooked by Laverne, consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, homemade bran muffins with homemade strawberry jam, cranberry juice and, of course, milk.

The president's soiled slacks did get some press coverage, and were later referenced during one of the many "Saturday Night Live" skits in which Chevy Chase portrayed a bumbling President Ford.

But a clear majority of Republican voters in the 1976 Wisconsin primary did not mind one bit. Ford won that April 6, on his way to defeating Ronald Reagan for his party's presidential nomination four months later. He would lose the general election in November to Democrat Jimmy Carter, by a slim margin.

Shortly after the visit, the president invited the Senns' daughter, Mary Beth, and her 4H group to tour the White House during a trip to Washington. He also invited Peter and Laverne to a state dinner, but they couldn't go because Peter was in the hospital at the time.

The tale of the tarnished trousers is resurfacing now, more than 30 years later, as a nation mourning the loss of the 38th president of the United States recalls his down-to-earth persona fondly. Ford died Dec. 26 at age 93.

Laverne Senn recalls the moment this way:

"That was funny."

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)