Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

mrfox12 t1_jbg2lr8 wrote

Reply to comment by DukeMaximum in TIL that a 26-story skyscraper pig farm was built in China's Hubei province, and has the capacity to slaughter 1.2 million pigs a year. by DukeMaximum

I grew up in a house in rural Indiana by a traffic light. Livestock trucks would have to stop all the time, and within that short amount of time, the smell would become unbearable.

46

DukeMaximum OP t1_jbg3w7n wrote

I went to high school with a kid whose family were hog farmers. Poor kid always smelled like pig shit. He was a nice and smart kid but, no matter how recently he showered, there was always a vague, earthy, shit-smell around him. He got teased and called "Pigpen" which, in fairness, was remarkably clever for high schoolers in the 90's.

60

Boba_Tea_Mochi t1_jbg5e65 wrote

You got me interested. What happened to Pigpen? Did he continue with his family occupation or did he go on to college and become rich?

14

DukeMaximum OP t1_jbg6amm wrote

I honestly didn't keep up with him for long after high school. I know that he hated hog farming (he came from an old-fashioned family who considered kids to be free labor), so I doubt that he followed the family business, especially the way family farms have been bought up by corporate interests. I know that he enlisted in the Marines and spent some time in Japan but, after that, I don't really know. I hope he found himself a career and built a good life.

32

Bruce-7891 t1_jbgb9jd wrote

First of all Pigpen would make a cool biker name. Second, that kind of childhood usually only ends 1 of 2 ways.

  1. He is sketchy as hell, lives in the woods and does taxidermy for fun.

  2. He wanted to prove everyone wrong, makes tons of money, lives in a luxury condo, is a neat freak and donates to PETA

14

midnightspecial99 t1_jbhc33u wrote

He founded Mother McCree’s jug band with Jerry Garcia before they recruited others and changed their name to the Grateful Dead. He was the only one to not do drugs, but he died of liver failure from too much drinking at 27.

2

Ace-of-Spades88 t1_jbgtdhe wrote

>He got teased and called "Pigpen" which, in fairness, was remarkably clever for high schoolers in the 90's.

You know that Pigpen was the name of a Peanuts/Charlie Brown character since like the 50's...right?

−5

DukeMaximum OP t1_jbgu20a wrote

I'm going to ignore the snide tone of your comment and simply assure you that, yes, I am familiar with the Peanuts character. I simply didn't expect high schoolers in the 90's to be that aware of a newspaper comic strip.

1

Jduppsssssss t1_jbh4vsi wrote

I was in high school in the 90s and the comics were the only part of the paper I read. It still had Peanuts at least through 94/95 ish.

4

vindictivejazz t1_jbi5b15 wrote

Maybe not the comic strip but the TV specials were already pushing 30 years old at that point, and I’d reckon 95-100% of your classmates had seen those

1