Leroy the Bacon Shedding Hog Goes to Georgia

     It was in 1964 that Ben Koerber encountered Leroy the bacon shedding hog.  It was in south Georgia on the banks of the Okefenokee swamp  that they crossed paths.  Ben was picking up pecans underneath a humongous tree.  It was in the fall, likely November.  He had a toe sack three quarters of the way full when he heard behind him what sounded to him like an African log drum.  Ben was in the Navy for twenty years and spent some time in West Africa.  It was there he grew to love the sound of those log drums.  Needless to say he stopped and went  to investigate.  He could not believe his eyes.  He saw a huge hog with his tail in a knot hole of a half submerged cypress log.  That was where the drumming sound was coming from.  Mr. Koerber’s eyes and ears were at full alert from seeing the giant hog and hearing the drumming.  It was at this time that the aroma of perfectly prepared bacon filled Ben’s head.  Beside Ben on a sassafras twig were 4 pieces of the best looking bacon he had ever seen. It was warm like just out or a frying pan.  The hog suddenly raised his head.   It seemed to Ben that the hog’s eye was at the same level as Ben’s and he was a six foot tall man.   Ben grabbed the bacon and ran for the safety of the massive pecan limbs.  There he ate the bacon and sat quietly until there was no sound of that hog.  Mr. Koerber lived to be a very old man and always said it was the best bacon he ever ate.