By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Wayne Costa stands with his plastic cow in Maili.
Readers of the "Leeuwarder Courant" in the lovely, cow-dotted countryside of Fryslan in the Netherlands were entertained recently by a snapshot of a plastic cow in Maili, on Oahu's Leeward Coast. Maili cow statue gets around
Snapshots from around the world are a regular feature in newspapers in Fryslan, which is dairy country. Thus, the Maili cow.
The cow stands at the entry of Wayne's Dairy in upcountry Maili-Lualualei, near the Navy antenna array. The Fiberglas cow is a veteran, having been brought to Hawaii several decades ago by Wilbert Costa, who operated a dairy in Kipapa Gulch.
"I think he paid like $1,500 for it on the mainland," said nephew Wayne Costa, who eventually bought it from his uncle for $50. "He used to bring it to all the meetings of the 50th State Dairy Farmers Co-op."
Every once in a while, says Costa, intoxicated neighbors attempt to remove the cow, but "she's pretty well bolted down."
He vaguely that remembers his sister, who works in Waikiki hotels, brought around some "guys from Belgium or someplace who asked a lot of questions about dairies and milk."
Not that there was a lot to share. "You feed cows, you milk 'em. That's the dairy business."
Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin.
