Riding the pigs

The boy’s were outside playing like most days they spent on their grandparent’s farm. Grandpa had gone to town to deliver some milk to the creamery and make a stop at the local tavern.

He had found it was easier to go by himself to town. This way there was no chance Stacey or any of his brothers would be able to tell grandma about the stop at the tavern. When he did take Stacey, who was now eight years old, he would set him up on the bar and buy him peanuts in exchange for keeping quiet about the side trip.

On this day Stacey and his twin were bored. They had tired of playing in the hayloft and did not feel like going up to the mound to play. It was then the twin had an idea. He said to Stacey, “Let’s go chase the pigs in the hog lot.

Grandma had already gotten after them for chasing the chickens and disturbing the hen’s roosts. She scolded them because if the chickens got riled they would not lay properly and there would be no eggs to sell.

With little encouragement Stacey decided the twin had a good idea and it would be fun to chase the pigs. Along with the pigs were a few old sows that were farrowing the newborn piglets. The boys not realizing the danger of chasing pigs in the hog lot, with the sows and their newborn piglets, were having a great time. That is until grandma caught them.

Apparently sows become very mean and very aggressive when they have newborn piglets. The old woman came running out the back door of the house. She was attired in her usual paisley printed cotton dress and a pair of work boots. To say she was yelling would be an understatement.

She grabbed each boy by the scruff of their necks and dragged them out of the hog lot and into the house. The boys had never seen her so angry or upset. She grabbed the switch off the back porch and started wailing on the twin, something she had never done before. He immediately started to cry and after a few swats she let him up.

Now it was Stacey’s turn for the switch. The old woman laid him across her knee and began whipping him with the switch. But Stacey refused to cry. The more grandma spanked him the more he resolved not to cry. This made the old woman even angrier and she continued to wail on his backside but still no tears or screams. Soon the old woman gave up and decided there was no point in any more spanking.

It was the one and only time grandma ever spanked the boys, though they probably deserved it often. She was driven by her fear of what would have happened to those boys if one of the sows had gotten a hold of them. A lesson both boys learned that day through the business end of the switch and the love, care and concern of grandma.