Finding a Way?

[Whitney, Group Moderator]

From The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel (Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer)

I will tell you now about our roast pig. The Germans were fussy over farm animals. Pigs and cows were kept strict count of. Guernsey was to feed the German troops stationed here and in France. We ourselves could have the leavings, if there were any. How the Germans did favor book-keeping. They kept track of every gallon we milked, weighed the cream, recorded every sack.

They would make surprise visits to your farm, and your number of living pigs had better tally up with their number of living pigs. One pig less and you were fined, one time more and you could be arrested and sent to jail in St. Peter Port. If too many pigs went missing, the Germans figured you were selling on the Black Market, and you were sent to a labor camp in Germany. With the Germans you never knew which way they’d blow—they were a moody people.

Will Thisbee had a sickly pig who died. The AO came out and wrote a Certificate saying the pig was truly dead and left Will alone to bury the poor animal. But Will didn’t—he hied off through the wood with the little body and gave it to Amelia Maugery. Amelia hid her own healthy pig and called the AO saying, “Come quick, my pig has died.” The AO came out right away and, seeing the pig with its toes turned up, never knew it was the same pig he’d seen earlier that morning. He inscribed his Dead Animal Book with one more dead pig.

We could do this till the pig turned rank. The Germans caught on finally and began to tattoo each pig and cow at birth, so there was no more dead animal switching.

Amelia’s pig made us a fine dinner—there were onions and potatoes to fill out the roast. We had almost forgotten how it felt to have full stomachs, but it came back to us. With Amelia’s curtains closed against the sight of the German battery, and food and friends at the table, we could make believe that none of it had happened.