Pigging Out At The Library

By Nancy K. Crevier

June Hanna’s new display in the first floor lobby case near the Children’s Department of C.H. Booth Library is an ode to pigs. Salt and pepper shakers, needlework, ceramics, plates, ornaments, piggy banks, kitchen tools, pitchers, mugs, and even a tape dispenser and pig-shaped telephone are among the dozens of items that venerate all that is porcine.

“This is less than half of the 115 pig items in my collection,” Ms Hanna said on Thursday, August 30, just two days after setting up the display, “and I haven’t ever bought a single one for myself.”

The collection is thanks to her pet Vietnamese pot-belly pig, Tai, adopted 20 years ago while vacationing in South Carolina, with her husband, the late Jack Hanna. A look at a locally advertised piggy turned into an adoption and the tiny, 10-pound piglet came home in Ms Hanna’s arms.

By the end of Tai’s second year, she was ten times that weight, and has matured to a hefty 200 pounds. It is 200 pounds of love and fun, though, said Ms Hanna, and has inspired friends and family to bestow upon her the tin, wooden, ceramic, glass, and plastic pig paraphernalia that decorates her home.

With so many pieces to her collection, it is difficult to remember which one came first, Ms Hanna said, but she believes it is the porcelain music box topped with pigs aboard a teeter-totter. “That was a gift from Jack, and after that, family members almost immediately started giving me pig-related things,” said Ms Hanna. “I remember that was the Christmas of piggy gifts,” she said.

What really propelled the collection, though, was a February 1996 article in The Newtown Bee featuring Ms Hanna and her extraordinary pet pig.

“That started it all,” she laughed, and now there is not a room in her home that is pig-free. She has even become used to hearing neighborhood children call out, “Hi, Mrs Pig Lady!” when they see her around town.

With Tai celebrating her 20th birthday early last month, it seemed like a perfect time to share her swinish swag with Newtown’s residents.

Choosing which items to use in the display was difficult, Ms Hanna said.

“I tried to get a selection of items from friends, from family, some older, and some newer,” she said. Large or bulky items did not make the cut, no matter how beloved, said Ms Hanna.

She pointed out some special pieces in the display. “The bathing piggies were a gift from my friend, Gail Ugolik, I remember,” she said, “and the antique bacon press was a present from Bud Kenyon.”

A set of two vintage pig mugs and a pitcher was the gift of friend Ann Marie Macey, and son Jeff gave her the cast iron pig bootjack. From a 92-year-old friend, she received several needlework pig pictures.

There are lots of memories in each and every piece on display, she said. “I love them all,” said Ms Hanna, and she hopes the public will, as well.

June Hanna’s pig exhibit will be on display at the library through the month of September, and can be viewed during regular library hours.