Holy crap. Moire has alerted me to an old Hoosier tradition that dictates than if a younger sister gets married before an older one, the older has to dance in a pig trough at the younger’s wedding reception. I’m not kidding. Apparently they even made special stockings for the older sister to wear. Good grief.
Mia
December 27, 2002 — 7:01 pm
I would pay some good money to see taht. How much are tickets again? HEHEHEHE!
Mia
December 27, 2002 — 7:02 pm
that would have been so cute, had i not misspelled “that.”
Kris
December 27, 2002 — 7:10 pm
Heh. Mine’s not engaged yet, but she might as well be. I’m trying to figure out what kind of dance is required. Do I have to do some kind of dopey folk jig, or can I “get my phreak on”, do you think? 🙂
Mia
December 27, 2002 — 7:43 pm
Hmmm. Well, if the Hoosier Handbook doesn’t suggest otherwise, I would say that the “Get Your Phreak On” dance is allowed. Now THAT would be worth the price of admission!
Oh yeah, and I’m trying to email you at your WG address, and it’s saying that it’s a bad addy. I’ll just say here what I was going to write to you: Yes, the monkey is something that will do nicely as a hump-friend for Olivia. The colors are cool. I got your address, but is cash ok? Or do I need to send a check or what? I’m not hip to the international affairs, Coolio.
Kris
December 27, 2002 — 7:47 pm
Weirdness. I’m switching some domain stuff around, so maybe my mail is momentarily screwy. Hopefully it’ll resolve itself soon. Cash is cool, and checks are fine too. I’ll get to work on your monkey. 🙂
Kris
December 27, 2002 — 7:54 pm
The Snook and I just verified that all my w-g addresses are indeed down. Crap. Thanks for the heads-up though.
Mia
December 27, 2002 — 8:39 pm
Nada problem, “Get Your Phreak On” Girl.
aim
December 28, 2002 — 1:17 am
ok. i don’t give a crap about hoosier tradition, you’re not wiggling your booty in a pig trough at my wedding! besides, it won’t be for years…hopefully by then we’ll have forgotten anyone ever mentioned this… 🙂
Moire
December 28, 2002 — 1:48 am
But if the older sister doesn’t get her phreak on in the pig trough, she’ll be a spinster for the rest of her life!!!
Heh! Who comes up with these daffy traditions, anyway? I just think my Dad brought it up to tease me, as he often (mercilessly) does, because I’ve never heard of this “tradition” before. But that’s my Dad for you: pulling useless, trivial facts out of his ass when you least expect it! 🙂
Can you imagine, though? It would be super humiliating. I wonder what song the DJ would choose as suitable for Pig Trough Dancin’?
brigita
December 28, 2002 — 1:51 am
i’d always heard that the older single sis has to dance with a broom at the younger’s wedding, but then indiana’s always been more X-treme like that. 😉
Kris
December 28, 2002 — 8:48 am
Sounds like your Dad and our Dad would get along great, Moire. As soon as mine reads about this, I’ll never hear the end of it. 🙂
Nora
January 13, 2003 — 11:26 am
(I’m way behind on my reading and trying to catch up) The dancing in a hog trough thing is not limited to Indiana. My cousin got married last summer and his older sister and his wife’s older brother had to it together. We thought it was a Mercer County, Ohio, tradition. . . (Granted, Mercer Cty. is on the Indiana border.)
My cousin’s reception was at some function hall, and there was a big sign when you walked in, “NO HOG TROUGH DANCING.” Someone had constructed a simple trough though, and when the time came, the older siblings had to go out in the parking lot and dance on the thing until it broke. Problem was, they used 2x4s to construct it, so it wouldn’t break. Heh.
It’s really one of the more bizarre traditions. . .
Kris
January 13, 2003 — 5:11 pm
Wait… You’ve got to dance in it til it breaks? That’s a lot of dancin’.
Nora
January 14, 2003 — 5:47 am
Oh yeah, that’s the whole point. You have to smash up the pig trough. I didn’t have a good view at my cousin’s wedding, but I think the older brother ended up picking up the trough and smashing it on the ground to get it to break — the dancing just wasn’t getting the job done.
khay
January 14, 2003 — 6:14 am
I love the whole idea of the pig trough and dancing. There must be a very special dance step needed to break the trough. I was an unmarried pregnant older sister at June’s wedding how would I have gone?
Moire
January 14, 2003 — 10:40 am
Sniffle. I don’t wanna dance in a hog trough, let alone until it breaks!! I’m so screwed.
Tricia
January 14, 2003 — 6:12 pm
OMG!! Should I be thankful that my ‘lil sis has been living in sin all of these years, sparing me the pig trough dance, or should I just be thankful that I’m not from the Midwest?
Kris
January 14, 2003 — 7:31 pm
A little of both, I imagine. 🙂
Angie
March 24, 2004 — 9:31 am
We were always told us this a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. I had to do this at my little brother’s wedding. I hid a sledge hammer under the head table beforehand and had it slid out to me at the appropriate time. This made for some pretty funny video if nothing else.
Kris
March 24, 2004 — 3:27 pm
Hahahaha… BRILLIANT idea, Angie. I just may have to steal that one!
Stephanie
March 27, 2004 — 6:27 am
Guess what…I’m from Celina, Ohio (in Mercer County), and every wedding I’ve ever attended had older unmarried siblings dancing in the hog trough (including at my own!). We moved to Florida about 4 years ago, and my nephew is getting married next month. His older brother will ABSOLUTELY be dancing in a hog trough at the reception…so maybe we will be spreading the tradition throughout the country a little. By the way, my soon-to-be niece and her family think we’re really odd, so maybe if she see’s this website, she’ll understand that it’s not just us!
Anonymous
February 8, 2005 — 5:02 am
Actually, for anyone who looks at this, there is a song called the “Hog Trough Dance” and they can dance to that…I’m from NW Ohio and we definitely have done this at every wedding I’ve been to that it applies.