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I tell a variation of this story every Thanksgiving. Most people are familiar with the name Butterball associated with turkey, but don't know where the name Butterball originated. The fact is, it is still used in its original form along with a butter company in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where I grew up but am now in southern Cal) known as "Butterball Farms" and founded by my late grandfather, Leo Peters. My grandfather attended Calvin College (as did I) and attended the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) (originally Dutch Reformed) and after college started working at a meat company in Chicago, Ilinois. This is where my mother was born (in Evanston) and while there my grandpa came up with an idea to make butter more attractive . At the time (back in the day, 1930's & 40's) butter came in a uncolored lump, and was not aesthetically appealing, albeit apparently had the same or similar taste as today. His simple idea was to inject a bit of coloring into butter, a "color pack" of some sort. Story goes that he initially brought the idea to his boss, but they weren't impressed or didn't have the infrastructure to produce it, so grandpa decided to "go it alone" as they say. From their apartment garage in Evanston, grandpa & his daughters (he had 6 eventually from the "first family" albeit only the older daughters were with him in Evanston before the move to GR) began making "butterball" butter; and the rest, as they say, is history. It was SO SUCCESSFUL that grandpa was able to start his own butter business and move across the "big lake" (Lake Michigan) to Grand Rapids and buy a big factory on Buchanan Ave & even a big mansion to live in as well ! It's a classic Horatio Alger American story ! Today, the company is still in business, run by grandpa's son from his 2nd marriage (after grandma tragically died) and sell big patties of fancy butter (in addition to the coloring, he also developed various fancy molds) to local restaurants, as well as to McDonalds in North America (the small butter patties you get with breakfast hotcakes are my "grandpa's butter"). So how did the name butterball become associated with the turkey and a different company ? Well, somewhere along the way, grandpa was approached by the meat makers who wanted the name for their turkey, and grandpa sold them the name but retained the rights to keep using it with his butter. That's the story !. There's a lot of details that go with the Peters family as they grew up in Grand Rapids (death of grandma, remarriage of grandpa, kids from 2nd marriage etc) but that's a different story for a different time. But what i will ALWAYS REMEMBER FONDLY are the big thanksgiving dinners we had at the "Butterball Mansion" (750 Plymouth St. SE) and not only grandpa's butter straight from the factory, but also his specially prepared meat (he also dabbled in cooking meat in a manner that preserved the juicyness...and in fact for a short while had a restaurant called "Juicyful" ) . For a while all was bliss. We had great big Thanksgiving dinners & some big Christmas parties (with some of the local "celebrities") and enjoyed going to "the cottage" in the summer on Lake Michigan (where I learned to water ski, & do a flip on the trampoline, among other things). Good times. Good ol' days. Focus on the Good. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY. Be thankful no matter what your situation may be, but also work towards making things better. Protect unborn life ! God be with you all ! -vander-