just a pinch between the cheek and gum

We didn't really have a chance to celebrate National Pig Day* on Monday because Cardo was unexpectedly off. Instead of my planned activity, we spent a good deal of time outside, which was fabulous. (It seems even better now, given our current bits of snow and our freezing cold wind.)

So, yesterday, Pic and I made a kind of paper plate puppets: three pigs and a wolf. I searched all over for a version of "The Three Little Pigs." Out of all the books we own, I knew we had to have at least one version of the story. I was surprised to find that we might actually only have one version, albeit in two different volumes. The earlier volume it has been collected in was first copyrighted in 1923 and the second was first copyrighted in 1956, but the versions, both adapted by Joseph Jacobs, seems to be the same (I only read one version when I noticed the beginnings, at least, were verbatim).

The story isn't the cleaned up version where the foolish pigs who built their houses of straw and sticks** had a chance to run to their more practical brother's brick/stone house. No, in this version each of the first two pigs is eaten by the wolf and, in the end, the third pig eats the wolf.

This version, the version I read Pic yesterday, starts with a bit of verse:

Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme,
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!

Then comes the story.

And, just in case you might not believe there was a time when monkeys chewed (or at least smoked) tobacco, H. A. Rey offers further anecdotal evidence. Tonight, Pic asked me to read her Curious George (a book I definitely have some problems with). At one point (after the man with the big yellow hat stuffs George in a sack and steals him out of Africa), George settles in at the man's house. George enjoys a good meal and then a good pipe. He sits in the chair, contentedly puffing away on the pipe.

It's interesting to go back and read earlier versions of stories. Pre-Disney, pre-PBS versions of stories. I don't want to idealize the older versions just because they're older and may be more authentic. However, I also don't want to only expose Pic to the very sterilized (for lack of a better word...optimistic?, sunny? Disneyfied?) versions of the stories because I know there's a history behind what we have. And, wolves eat pigs. At least, they would given the opportunity. Pic asked me, "But, did he just eat the pig for pretend?" and I told her, "No. I think he really ate the pig." She responded, "Okay, but the wolf didn't chew the pig up." When she retold the story, using the puppets, the wolf still swallowed the pigs, but they reappeared in the end. (Where's that woodsman from "Little Red Riding Hood" when you need him to slit open a wolf and release his most recent meal?)

Anyhow, I initially was only going to comment on the tobacco references. I was thinking about such things already because this post on now-illegal substances like cocaine and opium being marketed to, basically, the whole family. Cocaine toothache drops! Opium for all ages! What'll it be a hundred years from now? (I'm guessing something along the lines of, "I can't believe they fed all of those processed food-like products to their children!")

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*What's my tone here? Am I being sincere? Is there a bit of my tongue tucked into my cheek? :)

**In the version we have, the second pig built his house of "furze." I assumed that is a kind of stick, but I looked it up anyhow. "Furze" is another term for "gorse" (thanks computer dictionary). "Gorse" is a yellow-flowered shrub of the pea family and is from the Latin for barley. (I'm a bit obsessed with the dictionary. You're welcome.)