Tuesday, October 19, 2021 Barrows and Gilts

I worked in the State 4-H Office while I was in college; part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer. It was a great job – I loved it! I worked for the Animal Science extension agent. The build-up to the State Fair was exciting as we received fair entries from all 92 counties. One time my boss asked me to call an entrant who had left off the form the number of male and female pigs he was going to bring. This was a step up from my usual role of making copies and filing things and I was a little nervous. I called and a man answered.

“Hello,” I started off confidently, “This is the State 4-H Office. I have the form for your child’s pig entry for the state fair. The number of males and females was left off the form. Could you give me that information?”

“We’re bringing 3 barrows and 2 gilts,” was the reply.

“I just need to know how many males and females, sir,” I responded efficiently.

There was a short silence.

“You’re not very familiar with animal farming, are you?” He said dryly and proceeded to educate me on just what barrows and gilts are. He didn’t say it, but I could hear the unspoken jeer, “City girl!”

When the state fair came around, I got to work on the fairgrounds, which seemed like the epitome of exotic fun to me. Those of us who worked at the fair stayed in the dorms on the St. Paul campus. It doesn’t take much to fill me with a sense of self-importance and I strutted around like I was a neurosurgeon who might be called in to perform brain surgery at any moment. We spent most of our time in the office taking calls and answering questions, mostly routine things. Sometimes we could take a little time off to go watch the judging, which was mysterious to me, not having any experience in these things.

One time I was in the state fair office by myself and a woman came in saying that her daughter’s foot had gotten stepped on by a cow and she was injured. You should know that I’m the very LAST person you want to be around in an crisis. I tried to seem outwardly calm and knowledgeable, but inwardly I was in an absolute panic. Was this an emergency? Do I need to call for medical assistance? What do I know about what happens when cows step on feet?

“We have a first aid kit on hand,” I said, deciding to start at the very minimum level of care possible. Basically I was offering up a band-aid, antiseptic and some gauze. To my relief, the woman replied, “That would be great, thanks!” I felt quite relieved to know that my skills as a foot care specialist were not going to be required. I handed the stuff off to her and hoped for the best.

Shortly after I started working at the State 4-H Office on campus, Marilyn was hired as a secretary for the Animal Science extension agent. Marilyn was in her early 40’s, pleasingly plump, with pretty face, dark curly hair and an infectious laugh. Some people know how to bring the party and she was one of them – always seeing the humor in things and sharing her sense of fun. One day she came in, full of the happy news that she had just bought something that had been advertised as “The Wonder Purse.” She couldn’t wait to show it off and several of us gathered around to see this clever piece of work. As you can imagine, it was a huge purse replete with zippered pockets and extra places to store all your items. She took to referring to it as the “WP,” which always got a laugh. If someone needed a bobby pin or a zip-lock bag, or a cracker or some other random thing, she’d say, “I’ll just check in the WP!” and the WP rarely failed us.

Good times.

This has been Tuesday True Stories with Lynniebeemuseoday.

I’ll probably delete this and store it in the WP, which is somewhat akin to Mary Poppins’ carpetbag.