When we visited Patrick in May 2012 we were surprised to see the family cement pig sitting in our room at the Grasshopper Inn where Patrick works.
That pig has a long history. To the best of Joe’s and Patrick’s memories, the story starts back in the 1980s. Patrick and Joe were driving from Michigan to Worthington. Along Route 23 north of Delaware, Ohio, Joe stopped at a business he’d passed many, many times. The yard was full of cement yard decorations – the kinds of things that Joe admires. He and Patrick decided we just HAD to have a HUGE cement pig. The salesperson told Joe they would have to have a truck to haul something that large and heavy.
Joe and Patrick were very disappointed. They left and drove south. When they got outside Delaware they saw several smaller pigs at a service station. They were overjoyed. Joe says one of the reasons he wanted to get the big pig was that he knew he could get a “rise” out of me. They bought one of the smaller pigs – a black and white one. I can’t remember my exact reaction the first time I saw it. I’m sure I wasn’t as excited as Joe was – especially when he insisted that it had to reside on our fireplace hearth in the living room. Joe mumbled something about Williamsburg and “quaint.” His sense of design and decoration has sometimes been different than mine. The pig stayed on the hearth for a long time. At some point I moved the pig outside – that was my idea of ‘quaint’ and an appropriate place for a large cement pig.
Winter came and Joe worried about the pig. He brought it inside and perched it on top of a 5 drawer filing cabinet in our basement. The pig looked over my shoulder all winter. When Spring came, I took the pig outside again – and it stayed there for years. Every once in a while I spray painted the pig to spruce it up. Over the years the snout and other parts were nicked by the lawn mower. Sometimes the pig stayed outside all winter, sometimes he got to stay in the garage. Eventually he was put on the bottom rack of a plant stand. His weight held it nice and steady. Then about a month before we left North Street, we had a terrible storm. High winds blew branches out of the back yard maple. The plant stand was blown over. When we went out to inspect the damage, we discovered the pig had a broken leg and many more nicks. We put all the pieces in a box.
When we were moving from North Street, we asked the children what they wanted from the house. Patrick mentioned the pig. The pig and his leg pieces were transported across country. The pig and parts stayed in the garage until our first trip to Montana after our move. Patrick transferred the box with the pig and parts to his Subaru and moved the pig to the Grasshopper Inn in Polaris, Montana.
That brings us to May 2012. The pig is a bit worse for wear but then none of us look the same as we did 30 years ago. All of us have a few nicks from times life has knocked us around and storms have blown us over. But we pick up our pieces and keep going – hopefully giving people some pleasure and a reason to smile when they look at us.
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