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Marly, wish I could help on this one, but all I can think of is Madge, soaking her fingers in Palmolive in that old commercial. Jeanette, I'm sorry, but you are wrong. Believe 51 was correct when she commented that they use the balm for "cow utters". Jeanette, I know you're from Scotland, so there is a little bit of a language barrier, but I can help. (I'm Stewart, wife, Clark/Moffat from Prestwick area) In the early days of cow-milking, which began in this country in central Idaho, the winters were very harsh and long. Like Canada, the cow farmers in Idaho had only one week of spring, which they usually scheduled for the last week of August. Anyhow, the winters were so cold, that when the early morning cow-milking was to be done, the mothers and fathers would roust their young sons out of bed to go do the milking, and then they would sleep in a few more hours before the morning potato-digging. Often, the young sons would "mutter" in their sleep, "what the heck, I was sound asleep, don't wanna go milk a cow, me hands is cracked and bleedin'" The father would grab his switch and whip 'em out of bed yelling "don't give me your cow-mutters again, boy!" "But, Papa, me hands!" Then the father would smear some salve onto the hands of his son's cracked and sore hands to ease the pain for the milking. "Now get to milkin' you, you lousy cow-mutterers!" Over the years, the expression was shortened to "cow-utterers", and decades later, the expression was shortened, yet again, to "cow utters" and it became a common term in this country to refer to a milker of cows as a "cow utter", early in the 1850's it became a common practice for a milk-rancher to line up his cow utters before dawn and apply a soothing balm to their hands before the day's milking. (This early morning practice of applying balm to the hands of early American potato-diggers failed, as the potatoes they tried to dig slipped from their hands too easily) So, you see, Jeanette, Believe was correct. Love ya, Bill
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