Wild Hog Bursts Into Local Whataburger

I’m still laughing over this newspaper report from my little bitty home town in Texas (pop. 1,900)


It seems that a large, wild pig escaped from a trailer while being transported, bashed through the front glass doors at a local restaurant, frightening the staff and patrons. It finally ran behind the counter, a worker opened the back door and it ran out.

Now, you might think that livestock wreaking havoc in public places might be an isolated event in my home town, but you’d be wrong. Very wrong.

In May of 1976, my home town was conducting a Bicentennial celebration, part of which was to acknowledge the local longhorn cattle industry in the area. So, the town officials decided it would be a good idea to march about a hundred head of longhorn cows through the town square to commemorate its heritage.

Here came the longhorns into the town square, herded by real, live cowboys. The announcer heralded their arrival over the loudspeaker which, if you know anything about cows, caused instant terror among them.

Apparently, cows hate loudspeakers and they began a stampede around the town square. The cowboys and townspeople scattered everywhere, fleeing the onslaught of longhorns which had been our heritage for the past two centuries.

I was not there for some reason. I was home alone, but my mother, brother and grandmother were there and remember it well. The Stampede became an annual event in my hometown after that, only without any cows.

Here’s a photo from the local paper:

About 30 miles up the road is the small town where my dad and stepmother have lived for 40 years. That town’s heritage is turkey farming (not longhorns.) Back in the turkey heyday, the turkey farmers found that the best way to get thousands of turkeys to the market was to simply herd them down main street.

I’m not kidding! Here’s a photo of it:

So, that event became the annual Turkey Trot. I remember marching with my high school band in the Turkey Trot every year.

So, you can imagine my laughter upon hearing that a giant, wild pig burst through the front doors of a local burger joint.

That was just typical life in my neck of the woods.