Hunting for Pig Tales



DAVENPORT, IA - The workshop I conduct at schools with Eric and Courtney includes a part when we ask the children how they might change the story of The Three Little Pigs. Before we started traveling in January, the person at DMMO who authored the workshop warned us that, this being a farm state, we might have kids who suggest specific breeds for the pigs in the story. For instance, how would this tale be different if the main characters were Gloucestershire pigs instead of Hampshire pigs?

At Exira Elementary School this afternoon, we were working with a group of energetic 6th graders. To their credit, even though it was beautifully sunny outside, they were tuned in to what we were doing. One boy in particular separated himself from the group. At the beginning of the class period, he entered the classroom singing the Oompa-Loompa song from the Willy Wonka movie. For each question we asked, he had an answer that involved The Lord of the Rings. When it came time for us to gather the kids' ideas for their own version of The Three Little Pigs, he suggested that the story take place in Mordor. Later on, he found a way to suggest that Frodo conspire with the Big Bad Wolf and the pigs to defeat an onslaught or orcs.

At the end of the workshop, the young man in question raised his hand and said he had a question. I thought it would surely be something about Aragorn or Gandolf, but instead he asked, "When you guys play pigs in the show, are your ears tagged?"

Tagged? Not completely sure what he meant by that, I showed my city slicker colors and asked him to clarify.

"Oh," he explained, "Farmers tag their pigs so that they can keep track of them."

In two months of traveling, this was the first time we had received a professional-grade farmer question from a child. Courtney and I, a little taken aback by the question, responded, "No, we're not tagged. We're free-range pigs." I thought that would be the end of the discussion.

Upon hearing this, the youngster clapped his hands together in glee. "Awesome! Free-range! That means we can go huntin'!" When I asked him if pigs were currently in season, he looked at me incredulously. "It's always hog season! Let's go get us some boars!" Perhaps understandably, Courtney and I had no witty rejoinder for the young sportsman.

Maybe it's no coincidence that it took almost two months for us to get our first "farmer question." The act of asking such a question involves some small presumption on the part of the asker, because he assumes in doing so that the person to whom the question is addressed will have the necessary foundation of information to provide an answer. After two months of living amidst the crops, maybe it's possible that Courtney, Eric, and I finally give the impression that we would be able to tell a Chester White swine from a Kunekune by their scents.

Then again, maybe this kid was just messing with us.

Posted: Wed - March 23, 2005 at 10:41 PM      

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