Miss Priss hits the Jackpot Run!



Well Miss Priss did it.  We are hitting the "Jackpot/Club Pig" Circuit.  How much time can this actually take right?  I've seen the "on the road" section in "The Showbox" and this is doable.  I saw about 2 shows a month.  Not bad.  Little did I know this was just the May edition and HELL they had not put all the shows in. So we decide we are going to need a trailer to haul.  We just know we are going to need 8 pigs to run with, Right, WRONG!  So we do some fancy talking and we talk DUH EX into buying her a trailer.  He bought her a very nice trailer.  White with lettering and we dubbed it The Mary Hannah Mobile.  It was most assuredly a girls trailer.  White with purple lettering it said Mary Hannah Winstead across the top. On the back it had Ms. Stutes saying "in it to win it".   It of course , had pigs on it.  Pretty ones with big hiney's and long eyelashes.  People would often point and smile.  That was fun.  It was great to go whipping around folks at about 80 and they see MOM and sleeping Miss Priss.  Yes, we got a laugh or two or four.







The Mary Hannah


So here we go, we have no looked at the dates, times and places.  I'll tell you I'm not thinking we are going to make all these shows.  No way am I hauling pigs to Pasadena, Texas.  WRONG!  Well we have to have these pigs now much earlier in this decision we talked to Miss Priss's second hero in the pig world.  Dan Reed.  Now Miss Priss thinks the sun rises and sets on Jessica and Dan.  What they say goes, usually.  So she calls Dan and ask if he had enough pigs to run the summer.  Now Jessica AKA Ms. Stutes has already informed Dan that we will be running the "jackpots". Funny how she knew that before I even decided.  MMMMM HUMMMM. 

So yes of course Dan was going to fix Miss Priss up.  We came home with 10 pigs.  This should do it we are good I think.  Now once again that's what I get for thinking. 

The very first show our pigs were really small.  I mean really small.  Jessica says are you all going to the 1st show.  I said " no the pigs are babies and well I think we will skip this one and hit it hard as soon as school is out."  Jessica says "nah clean up that little one and go".  Little one's name was Penelope and she was a cutie.  Well we go and of course we have 30lbs of runt again.  Not expecting much.  If I am lying I'm dying, that darn Pennelope and Miss Priss won! The judge actually ask Miss Priss "honey did you bring that pig in a showbox".  To this Miss Priss ( she was shy then, now not so much ) says "no sir in my mama's car".  He just kinda patted her on the back and said well congratulations.  I know he was thinking ... OMG who are these people.  They won and the Jackpot was on!

Miss Priss and Pennelope Small but powerful!

Penelope met with an unfortunate issue a few weeks later.  She stressed out and died.  Yep died right there.  It was awful.  Miss Priss crying, me cussing on the phone with Jessica and James.  Well didn't help she's dead what am I gonna do with her.  James saved the day and buried her for me.  This would be the first burial of many in the Alvarado High School Pig Cemetery.  We were crushed she was our best pig.  Oh well! we are sunk.

Well we decide it will be ok.  When our pigs get bigger then we may have some luck on this circuit.  So we load up the "Pig Wagon" ( my daddy named it that ) and we head out to Belt Buckle in Waco.  We now are down to 9 pigs and not sure where the 10 th is coming from because we need 10.  Well he hit Waco, Texas and unload all is good so far.  This is where it got kinda ugly.  Seems the judge did not like our pigs.  No way no how.  Miss Priss did not place above 3rd.  Dan is here and he assures us they are just green its going to be ok.  Oh, and by the way, He had us a pig delivered.  She was awful.  She was skinny and high from the crap they gave her to calm her for the trip from Arkansas.  She was  beat up and I thought WHAT THE HELL! We loaded her up.  Someone said in passing I think that is a Cobb pig.  Now that meant not one darn thing to me.  A pig is a pig right. 

So we load and go , we are tired, pooped, worn out.  Miss Priss is sleeping and I'm driving and its geez very late.  So I get on the road.  Now a wonderus thing happens.  We are driving in from Waco and its way dark.  We come across out of Hillsboro Texas and OMG.  Its beautiful.  I had forgotten it was July 4th, fireworks were coming up all around us from the little towns.  It was so pretty.  I thought it was so cool I woke up Miss Priss and she said " yeah mom they are fireworks".  Well so much for that. Really was pretty though.

Now, remember I said no Pasadena, no way no how not going.  Well hell ... we were going.  So we packed our bags, shaved the babies and off we went.  Now this time we had Sweet Sister in Law #1 and Taylor with us.  We left at Midnight as PIGS DON'T SWEAT and in Texas its hot! So we had to leave at night and drive.  We get there at the butt crack of dawn.  (sweet sister in laws words not mine)  We pull in the shade to keep the babies cool.  Now this trip had taken awhile because well we had to stop and water and cool the babies off every 3 hours.  So here we are.  We unload find our hotel, nap then back to take care of the babies.  It was a great trip.  She won and won and won seems that ugly baby we picked up in Waco was a swan!  Everyone wanted to know where we got her and of course Miss Priss and I were blissful idiots saying "i don't know".  I now know they all thought were lying.  Seems to be a jackpot thing not to tell people where you get your pigs.  We really didn't know.  We just knew Dan came through.

I did learn a valuable lesson on this trip.  Always put a brake box in your car.  Yep! Thank  you fine folks of Pasadena for stopping when I blew through the red light, horn honking and kids screaming and pigs shifting.  People stopped, Good thing or we would have had pig babies everywhere.

Well it went on like this all summer.  We were home on Monday, Tuesday and Wed. and off on some "pig run" the rest of the week.  Poor Bill, he had to stay and work to keep us in money to keep us running.  Grandma would keep Jack.  Miss Priss and I were on the road.  We logged 25,000 miles just that jackpot run and I'm not counting Major show circuit.

Then we decide we will head to Kingsville and run the South Texas Series.  Now when we decided this I thought Kingsville was just the other side of San Antonio.  No one told me it was freaking 8 hours the other side!  We did it though and Miss Priss won Senior High Points in the South Texas Series.  We met some great people "The Lees", "The Kelso's" and this could be where we met the "Those Waggners" we love so much.   Kingsville Texas is where Ompa Kelso, Chris Lee, and Frank Sessions set me straight.  They told me how to "feed" a pig!  They gave me the in's and outs and I was writing it down.  I called Dan, I called Jessica and they both said try it.  Well try it we did and my god here we go we were unstoppable! She was winning and winning big.  Thanks to all those Men who were willing to help out some girls from North Texas that didn't have a clue!  GIRLS RULE would become our new motto.  This is where my baby "jackpot" bloomed.  Jessica said Jackpot was a piece of  "s*#".  Boy did he ever win.  Jackpot won everything, he was great.  MAMA can pick a pig now and again!  He was a barrow though and had to go be porkchops.  We did give him to Jessica to eat cause we couldn't stand the thought of a stranger having him.  Jessica's daddy was afraid he'd have to fatten him up to eat him.  NOT THE CASE.  She called me one day at lunch and said, "now i know this is going to hurt your heart, but Jackpot is GOOD!!!!!!!!!!" I could have gone all year with out that one.  Now that marked a turning point in our " jackpottin".  All the sudden Miss Priss would pull in and people knew who she was.  Now I'm thinking this was not such a good thing.  We learned another very important lesson.  When you are winning you find out who your friends are!  The real ones love you when you are winning and the help you when you are losing.  Those other ones they are just PISSED OFF!

So we are finishing up the South Texas series.  DH make the statement well if you get there with live hogs she wins. Now he should not have said this.  We packed up, loaded out in the sleet and driving snow.  The further south we go the worse the weather got.  It was snowing on the coast! The pigs were cold we were cold and we checked them in San Antionio all was well.  DH wanted to stop outside of S.A. and I said NOPE they are warm and cozy and asleep keep going.  DH said are you sure! I said yep! keep going.  Miss Priss was asleep.  This proved to be a lesson as well we got to Kingsville and we had one that didn't get up when we opened the trailer.  Imagine that, she was really sleeping.  Now we had 2 babies that looked just alike the only difference was MAMA had shelled out some really big and I mean really big money on one and didn't tell DH about it.   He thought they all cost $300.  This was a nice round number and he was really impresssed that Miss Priss was winning with cheap pigs.  Every time he ask us what did that cost we would say .... Dan gave it to us.  Now DH thought Dan the most generous man on earth. MMMM HMMMM
So we are unloading and one of our pig babies is dead.  I look at Miss Priss with I know just plain old panic.  I said Miss Priss which one is it.  She said don't worry mom its not the expensive one.

 

So now what do we do.  We do what any girl would do.  We unloaded the live ones.  Covered the dead one in hay to hide it and parked the trailer.  It was 31 degrees we it would be fine.  So Miss Priss did really well. She won the South Texas Series as I said.  On the last day it was 50 degrees out. OMG DH said what do we do.  I said follow me because girls rule.  I kid you not we "disposed " of that pig.  If you know me ask me the story sometime you will die laughing.

Mary Hannah and Joey Lee

The Buckle

Loading to go home minus a pig

Prissy getting a bath first show of the South Texas Series

Pricilla takes East Texas State Fair another BUCKLE

Rowdie! Most wonderful Rowdie

We have had some major Green Acres Moments during this time.  Miss Priss did it though she worked hard and managed to finish 3rd in the All a Round.  That pig in Waco turned out to be a winner and she launched Miss Priss to 2nd in the York Class.  Our beloved "Rowdie baby" shot us up to 2nd in OPB and Darn if "Buttercup" and "Jackpot" didn't hold us in the top ten in crosses. "Dan" went on to win 3rd in Ft worth.  "Rowdie won everything.  Every time she set her feet in the ring she was Reserve or Grand OPB.  San Angelo Gilt show she took 3rd.  San Antonio she was also 3rd.  Rowdie should have been reserve in both even if I am her pig grandma and I do say so myself.