Many small churches and charities have fund raisers. Mine was no different. The church board was headed by a noble woman named Gladys who thought it was her duty to make sure the Christmas in July pageant went off without a hitch.
July in Texas is hot. Poor Gladys was from Nebraska so poor dear, she just did not understand. She had theatrical experience and just knew we could put on a great show. We finally got her to agree no one had to ware red wool anything.
Auditions were held and several of the kids in Sunday school were selected to perform different things from playing the fiddle to playing the harmonica.
The night of the pageant we had one very talented little girl who could sing like an angel. Problem... she could only sing to Hamlet. She had been at my house while I was baby sitting for the Sunday school class. She fell in love with Hamlet, my 15 pound pot bellied pig. Hamlet loved attention any time he could get it. He had entertained the kids all afternoon. He had untied their shoes, played fetch, and of course plopped down instantly when someone hinted he was going to get a belly rub. Tonia, our little angel started singing to him. His tail went crazy.. he loved her voice. He followed her everywhere that day. That is how I discovered her beautiful voice in the first place.
I wanted Tonia to try out for the pageant but she had such stage fright all 3 attempts had failed. Gladys was beside herself. I suggested that we have Hamlet accompany her on stage. Gladys was absolutely horrified at the idea that a pig would be in the pageant. So, the rest of the board decided if we had a choice. If we wanted Tonia, we had to have Hamlet. Now, no convincing worked when the others tried to convince Gladys that Hamlet was a nice pig. So, we decided to just keep it a secret.
I put a Christmas hat on Hamlet. Tonia went out on stage and looked like a dear in headlights. Hamlet and I were at stage right. Gladys was just ahead of us. Suddenly, Hamlet wiggled out of my arms and squealed up to Gladys. He nuzzled the back of her leg, she squealed, Tonia was on stage and squealed, then Hamlet really squealed as I caught him. Gladys was sprawled out on the floor now, just sitting there trying to catch her breath. I grabbed Hamlet and told Tonia to sing to him to calm him down.
The whole audience stop as they watched Tonia sing to stage right and then Hamlet slowly came out. His tail was wagging and he was walked all the way to the center of the stage where Tonia was standing. No one uttered a sound. Hamlet just looked up at her and listened to that wonderful voice. As the song came to an end Tonia squatted down and stroked Hamlet. He nuzzled her. The entire audience said, Awe...He had learned all about bowing from other performances. He bowed and snorted then turned to Tonia. She started humming so he would follow her off stage
The pageant made the most money from people getting their picture taken with Hamlet. I was a very proud mom that day.
By that time Gladys had recovered and watched the whole thing from back stage. When it was all over she asked if Hamlet could perform in a fund raiser she was doing for her ladies club.
