Swimming Pig Story Takes Flight on Wings of a Song

— from Jeff Hanson —

On Valentine’s Day, Bossy’s Feltworks’ Mandy Troxel was with fellow Bossies Amy Lum and Kari Van Gelder, when Amy got a call from her husband saying he had picked up a hog walking along the road. A little unusual, but odd things do happen on Orcas. The next day we learned (previous story) that the pig had in fact escaped a pickup truck on a ferry deck, leapt off that boat and made her way to dry land on Orcas. Mandy knew that this story was the stuff of legend and song.

You see, besides crafting for Bossy’s Feltworks, Mandy is a favorite island songwriter and performer. She knew there was a song in there, and with the urging of friends, began the task of re-telling this newly beloved story in lyric form. She now says the chorus came pretty easily, but the verses took their sweet time. Mandy knew the song was ready for the world when, after singing it over and over at home, her daughter told her “Mom, I just can’t listen to it one more time.” I guarantee, on the other hand, that you’ll want to listen again and again.

Mandy debuted “Ode to Frieda the Pig” last Thursday at Random Howse here on Orcas to rousing cheers. The following evening she took the song to the mainland along with island songwriters Carolyn Cruso and Melody Funk, where they played a show at the Conway Muse near Mt. Vernon. There she introduced the story to a nearly incredulous group of mainlanders who had yet to hear about Frieda. Though I’m an islander, I was one of the lucky ones to see that show. Mandy delivered the song with a twinkle in her eye, and captured the crowd’s imagination with some sparkling humor and even a sly Mother Goose reference. By the end, she had the whole place singing the chorus with her.

The song tells a pretty good tale, but nobody except Frieda the Pig will ever know the whole story. That’s the stuff of legend, after all.