Hello, my name is Tom Spurr.  But more importantly, I have a new title, “The Pig Tales Man.”

So let me explain just what Pig Tales is and what it’s for.   As I said, I’m The Pig Tales Man.  You can always reach me at PigTalesMan@gmail.com .  And I have a little friend, Braidee.  She’s a pig, or to be more correct, a piglet.  She’ll have plenty to say too.  She’s not exactly what you’d call “quiet.”  You’ll meet Braidee a little bit later.  So Pig Tales comes to you from the Pig Pen of The Pig Tales Man.

Pig Tales is a web log, or blog, all about pigs.  That means it’s an internet thing.  It will bring you  good stories, funny stories, interesting stories, heart-warming stories about how our porcine friends (those are pigs) have fit into our culture in the past  and how they fit in today.  We’ll have stories about the special roles that pigs play in celebrations around the world and here in the U.S.A.  Some people actually use the word “pig” to mean bad things but you’ll learn here that pigs are intelligent and well thought of by many people around the world.

And you might not know this, but a pig’s favorite thing is to be a part, the main part, of a celebration, by being the meal.  So Pig Tales will also bring you delicious ways to best enjoy pigs in a culinary fashion, mostly as BBQ.  That’s what they really like.

You’ll learn about locations and dates of celebrations and fiestas that people are having in which pigs and BBQ play a special part.  We’ll also do fun things such as letting you vote on which famous pig you think you’re most like.  Is it Porky, or Miss Piggy, or Piglet, or Wilbur, or Arnold?  There will always be fun pig things here.

Okay so you get what Pig Tales is all about.  And now you’re asking the natural question, “Why would anybody do this.”  Here’s the answer.  I think you’re going to like it.

Pig Tales is sponsored by Green Pig Software, a new company founded by Dr. Gerald R. Wagner, a long time friend and business associate of mine.  You’ll never see a commercial or ad of any kind in Pig Tales but the cost of keeping it online and gathering the stories and organizing fun events about piggies is taken care of by Green Pig Software, Inc., www.greenpigsoftware.com .

I worked for Dr. Wagner as a salesman and sales manager way back in the late ‘70’s and early 80’s when we enjoyed great success with a marvelous software product called Interactive Financial Planning System (IFPS).  IFPS became one of the leading software applications of its time.  It was adopted by many of the world’s largest corporations as a tool for their financial planning.  After that I worked for Jerry again on a number of occasions, helping to bring software products to market that guided and assisted companies and individuals with their financial planning and other aspects of business management.

Jerry told me of his newest venture, Green Pig Software, and of course I was immediately interested in what was going on.

He explained that Green Pig Software got its name from green for money and pig for piggy bank.  It is special software that will help anyone who wants to grow the size of their savings, manage their money and prepare budgets.  As you probably know, we usually think that most money management and budget stuff is for people who already have a lot of money and don’t need help managing it.  Well they can use Green Pig Software too, but mostly it’s for all of us, whether we’re managing the money from our lemonade stand or newspaper route or from our painting or landscaping business or from your really big time rock band.  It will help you keep track of where you’re spending your money, how much you want to save, when you’ll need more, and stuff like that.  You’ll be seeing it offered to you by your bank or maybe your credit card company.  And it will always be free to you.

When Jerry explained about his new venture and I heard “pig” and “savings” a delightful experience I had some years ago came rushing back.  I sent him the little story that you’re about to read and that is how the blog “Pig Tales” came to be.  So here’s our first story about pigs and about how, maybe the idea of the piggy bank came to be.

I was traveling in Bali, Indonesia in the ‘90’s.  I learned that the Balinese peoples’ religion is Hinduism and we toured a typical Balinese family compound.  Traditionally the people of Bali lived together as a family of four generations; grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren.  They lived in a compound of about an acre with a wall around it and a special gate called a “spirit gate.”  The Hindu people believe that evil spirits can only travel in straight lines so the entry to the family compound consists of a break in the wall with another wall a few feet forward.  That way, anyone or anything that wishes to enter must go around the first wall to pass through the open gate and evil spirits can’t do that.

Inside the compound are buildings to house the four generations of the family, their family shrine which all Hindu families in Bali have, a vegetable garden, and an area to keep a pig. It was explained to us that the pig was fed scraps from the garden and from the table and grew large and fat until a special family event or religious celebration came along at which time the pig became the centerpiece of the culinary feast that accompanies such happy events.  Centuries ago there was no currency like Indonesia’s Rupiah, their unit of money like our dollar, so a family couldn’t save up their Rupiahs for a special event.  Instead, their family pig was their way of saving up.  It occurred to me that maybe that tradition was the forerunner of what we call a piggy bank today.

Societies all over the world that lived an agrarian lifestyle probably made use of different kinds of livestock in the same way to save for a feast or a famine.  The pig is a great savings machine because he isn’t particular about what he eats, any scraps will do, and he’s an easy animal to care for.

My new job as The Pig Tales Man is to bring you stories, legends, and traditions about pigs from around the world, here at www.pigtales.org.   There clearly is an association with the Green Pig software (www.greenpigsoftware.com) but we hope that Pig Tales takes on a life of it’s own.  We would welcome your stories about the pigs in your family life and traditions about pigs from the part of the country where you live and from the countries where your forefathers lived.  Send us your pig tales and we’ll publish them here on the Pig Tales Website.  And welcome to Pig Tales.

Swinecerely, Tom Spurr, The Pig Tales Man

PigTalesMan@gmail.com .