Saturday was the annual fund raiser for the Sinai, SD, fire department. The weather was of my dreams, 80 degrees, full sun and a light breeze. There was no tractor pull this year. Many antique tractors were on display with a variety of competitions; backing a two wheel trailer and a four wheel trailer, pulling a log through a series of traffic cones, a race that involved hand cranking the tractor, rolling a barrel with the front wheels of a tractor and a slow race to see which tractor could go the slowest. All of these activities took second place to the greased pig competition.
There were three classes of competitors; children, women and men. The ground in the pen was soaked with water until the mud was ankle deep. The children's competition was unisex and uniage. The youngest were a couple of boys I'd guess to to be about four or five. They were competing against some girls who must have been at least in their teens. A pig was smeared with lard and turned loose in the pen. The object was to pick up the pig and put it in a tub in the center of the ring. That quickly became second place for some of boys to the joy of belly flopping in the mud. It was a tie between two boys, one holding the front legs and the other the back.
In the women's contest the pig was larger. When one woman successfully tackled the pig she ended up sitting with the pig in her lap. After much effort she finally rose from the mud and deposited the pig in the tub while the other women watched.
For the men the unwritten rules were very different. As soon as a man would get a grip on the pig someone would tackle him. There was no polite standing back to give him a chance as the women did. They seemed to have as much fun wallowing in the mud as did the little boys.
It could go with out saying, there were no members of People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals present.
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