Around the middle of the 1980s, Mr. Bert McKenzie found himself laid-off, along with a lot of other folks, that worked at Clark Equipment Company. The company had operated in Richmond County since 1975 and at one time employed over a thousand people, but decided to close its doors here in the county after only eleven years.
Unemployment can affect people in different ways. While some former Clark employees went back to school, others started new careers, and some went into business for themselves. Why, several folks even built large chicken houses and went to farming.
Bert McKenzie decided to build himself several chicken houses on his farm west of Ellerbe. His farm lay close to Key’s Cross Roads ‘bout where the Pee Dee River Hills start.
Bert had always loved animals, especially horses. Along with his chicken houses, Bert built a nice horse barn and had pasture land cleared for his horses to graze on.
Beside his home, Bert — with the help of friends — built an original looking log cabin from timber cut off his land. Why, the cabin even has a loft, complete with a bed, just like the early settlers would have used.
Along beside the log cabin was a fire-pit surrounded by large rocks. Many a night, after the work was done, Bert and his friends would spend time by the fire telling tales and gazing at the stars.
It so happened early one cool March morning in 2006, Bert came out of his house and discovered about a 30-pound red Duroc pig rooting around in his yard. As the day went by, the little pig just made herself at home at the McKenzie farm. Bert asked his neighbors if they had lost a pig, but found no one who claimed the little pig. So, what better way to round out his farm than a pet pig? Why, he even started calling her Rosie.
As weeks went by, Rosie made friends with one of Bert’s horses named Grace. While Grace ate her oats out of the trough, Rosie would stand between Grace’s feet and eat the oats that fell out of Grace’s mouth. A real friendship developed between these two as they grazed in the pastures and hung around the barn.
Won’t long, Rosie made friends with all the farm dogs and started sleeping under Bert’s deck, just waiting for Bert to come out and scratch behind her ears or maybe get a handout of food.
As Rosie grew larger, Bert’s young niece would ride on Rosie’s back all around the farm. Bert said he didn’t know who enjoyed the ride the most — Rosie or his niece.
In a year or so, Rosie gained about 600 pounds. Her diet consisted of horse feed, dog feed and all the acorns she could find while roaming in the woods because Bert gave her free range on his farm.
Rosie became a large part of the family. Even when Bert and his friends would ride their horses, Rosie would follow along. When they came to a mudhole or small stream, she did exactly what hogs like to do best — and that was wallow in the mud to cool herself down.
Bert said one night he and friend was down at his chicken houses. They were sitting in the guy’s truck talking and the truck started shaking back and forth. Why, the guy thought that an earthquake was happening and jumped out of his truck. Won’t nothing but Rosie rubbing her back on the back fender of the truck.
Bert learned a lot about animals from watching Rosie. He said that Rosie was a God-send because his Mom had passed away only a week before Rosie showed up at the farm. He said he felt a part of his Mom was in Rosie because of her loving and affectionate manner.
As the acorns got scarce at the McKenzie farm, Rosie would visit the neighbors’ yards. A lot of times the neighbors would coach Rosie back home by dropping kernels of corn along the side of the roadway.
One of Rosie’s favorite pastimes, besides eating, was to sneak up on people. I myself can vouch for that because I witnessed it personally.
Seems one night, several of us fellows were enjoying a good time around Bert’s fire pit. What we didn’t know was Rosie was stalking us, ever so slowly through the darkness. Now I had seen Rosie when she was small but I hadn’t seen her since she became a 600-pound full grown hog. As Rosie’s large body came closer to the light of the fire, all I could see was this enormous black shadow appear from nowhere; ever so slowly moving on the ground toward us.
Now folks, I do believe in haints, but to tell you the truth, I ain’t never seen one until that night. Why, my brain was in gear but my feet wouldn’t move, no-sir-ree. It probably was a good thing because I might have gotten run over by a car while running back to Rockingham.
As things settled down, Rosie made her way up to the fire and nudged Bert in the side, hoping he might have a snack in his pocket.
As the years went by, Rosie became a familiar sight around Key’s Crossing and the Pee Dee River Hills. For over ten years, she had never been penned up and allowed to roam free as a bird, until arthritis finally took over her body.
Who says pigs can’t make good pets; as did “Sweet, Sweet Rosie”
J.A. Bolton is a member of the N.C. Storytelling Guild, Anson County Writer’s Club, and of the Anson and Richmond county historical societies and author of his new book, “Just Passing Time.”