Mystery solved. Back in May of 2021, I wrote “Sublet Piglet”, a column where I explored the possible reason or provocation behind a statement hand painted on the side of an old wood panel two-horse trailer that sits just off of South Dakota Highway 79, somewhere between Buffalo Gap and Hot Springs.

The statement of interest, painted in white on the faded wood panels, simply reads, “We Don’t Rent Pigs”. In that column, I explained that I had driven by that statement many times over the years, and many times, I had wondered what prompted or necessitated one to feel such a statement needed to be made known to all who may pass? Now I know.

How do I know? A book told me. So it goes.

For sale Augustus listed cattle and horses. As an afterthought he added, “Goats and Donkeys Neither Bought nor Sold, " since he had no patience with goats and Call even less with donkeys. Then, as another afterthought, he had added, “We Don’t Rent Pigs,” which occasioned yet another argument with Call. “Why, they’ll think we’re crazy here when they see that,” he said. “Nobody in their right mind would want to rent a pig. What would you do with a pig once you rented it?” “Why there’s plenty of useful tasks pigs can do,” Augustus said. “They could clean the snakes out of a cellar, if a man had a cellar. Or they can soak up mud puddles. Stick a few pigs in a mud puddle and pretty soon the puddle’s gone.” “Anyhow, Call, a sign’s a kind of a tease,” Augustus said. “It ought to make a man stop and consider just what it is he wants out of life in the next few days.” “If he thinks he wants to rent a pig he’s not a man I’d want for a customer,” Call said.

The Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry, was published in 1985, and adapted into a TV mini series that aired in 1989, with Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae and Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call.

Have you ever known how good something was for many, many years, and then someone else “discovers” it for the first time and annoying blabs about it as if you had no clue about its existence? Well, I “discovered” Lonesome Dove recently, and have commenced to annoy all that have known just how good it is.

I knew of it, but for some reason had never bothered to read the novel or watch the mini series? I’ve done both now, in that order, and quite enjoyed each. If, like me, Lonesome Dove never fluttered into your circle of being, for whatever reason, I believe it to be a worthwhile use of time.

There are many words of wisdom, humor, tragedy, love, loss…all the things that paint our worlds. Everyday things. Of those many words of wisdom, one of my favorites comes from Captain Augustus McCrae, “If you want one thing too badly, it’s likely to turn out to be a disappointment. The only healthy way to live life is to learn to like all the little everyday things…like a sip of good whiskey in the evening, a soft bed, a glass of buttermilk, or a feisty gentleman like myself.”

Everyday things…enjoy.