So as many of you know, for the last five years or so I’ve been in pursuit of a pig. Not just any pig, but a pig just like the one in my Grandma Pope’s cupboard. She has a little pig and a little lamb made in the same style. When we were little she’d let us play with them even though our moms said we’d break them. She’d say, “Aw, they’ll be careful” or something along those lines and because she trusted us with them we loved them like we loved her.
So on one fateful Mom’s Weekend shop-a-thon we found an identical little lamb. I had never even considered we could buy another pig and a lamb, but upon consideration, we couldn’t just LEAVE IT THERE, alone in the store, with no pig friend, and no loving family! (This logic comes into play a lot with antique junkies, so Gus is especially glad Mom’s Weekend is only once a year) So we bought the lamb, and so began the search for the elusive pig.
I have, in fact, begun to go into antique shops I’d never venture into ordinarily just to find this little devil. Berkley Springs, Boca Raton, Logan, San Antonio, Shipshewanna, Wheeling, Lebannon, Waynesville, Holmes County, Brown County, near and far, big ones and small ones, all for the pig. (well officially anyways) Along the way we’ve been taunted by other figurines in the same style and have accumulated (under the same philosophy of being morally bound to reunite their little animal family) two horses, one small and one large, a bunny, and a duck.
And then it happened, I was in Springfield today, at a sprawling antique mall I’ve been to over and over, speed-shopping for something else entirely. (but with the pig always in the back of my mind, of course) I rounded the corner and there it was… the PIG! He was hanging out with two other horses of his style, a cat with an inexplicable hole in the top of its head, and a cat lamp all by the same manufacturer. Then my mom called. She was in the parking lot with Carl and I had to leave it. I jottted down the booth number, like I wouldn’t remember finding my “holy pig grail”, and I ran out to meet her.
Out of breath I told her about the pig. THE PIG! Dad wanted to have lunch, (LUNCH?!? did I mention the PIG!) But Dad and Carl were oblivious, they were busy playing with the tractor Dad got him at the Farm Science Review (did I mention we’re in a weird business) and eating hot dogs. The second Dad left we shot back to the pig and considered its likeness to Grandma’s pig. Cheeks not quite as rosy as Grandma’s pig, and were the eyes blue or black? Doesn’t Grandma’s face the other way? We couldn’t remember, but it was close. Close enough to add to the group for sure. Certainly a success. The speed-shopping was a bust, but no one cared.
The pig has been secured.
