I know there is some more of you out there, LET the young ones meet you !!

COME join the " HALL OF FAMERS "

Well I've got 40 years in the business. I guess that would qualify me, that is, if you don't mind that I'm a Yankee! LOL>. However I can tell you that my grandfather Sam, came over from Italy in 1909 and went through Elis Island. There were coal mining agents waiting to offer the "green-horns" a job working in the mines over in Bluefield, W. Va. way. They promised a piece of land and a house. Which ended up being a shack on a ledge. There he met my grandmother and got married. My father was the first born. So I can say with certainty that none of my ancestors fought in the Civil War! LOL>  

toby (the meat slave) wrote:

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like meat monkey. have 31 years not counting my childhood in and out of shops with my dad.

still learning everyday. also would rather be in the shop . spent enough time in the Hall while in school!LOL

 

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 Toby, the childhood years count. Why wouldn't they?

Coalcracker wrote:

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 Trying to live on $26 per week was rough especially with babies coming every other year. Yea, I liked sex as much as I liked to cut beef. So the wife said we need more money. She still says that 40 years latter.

 

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 do and your wife have 20 children together?

OK, Leon here I am doing what like to do even at home.

Thank you very much Leon I really appreciate it. This may sound a little corny but for me, it is the icing on my 40 year old cake. My two grandsons came over to see me and congratulate me. I showed them my picture and the nice write up you did and they were beaming with pride for their papa.

To all the meat cutters out there I say this: Many of us meat cutters (for what ever reason)  have come and gone. Fortunately here at "The Meat Cutters Club" you will never be forgotten. 

I remember those ice-packed wooden crates of chickens.  As an apprentice, at start of shift "Bring out 20 cases of trims and cut them for parts." Lunch, then "Go get 20 cases of trims and quarter them."  Nothing like getting one of those wires from the crate through your hand while your hands were damn near frozen.

Coalcracker wrote:

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Ok Leon, I'm gong to brag on myself a bit so try not to get bored. I started my meat cutting career in a small butcher shop in Peckville, Pa. slicing boloney and picking up the hinds & fronts at Affiliated Foods in Scranton Pa. during the early 60's. At 21 I was 6"1" tall and weighed 230 lbs. All muscle but no brains. But the two brothers loved me because I did the heavy lifting. However, behind the counter slicing boloney I would watch the brothers breaking down the beef until finally one day Joe handed me a knife and said "have a go at it". I did, and never stopped for 40 years. Trying to live on $26 per week was rough especially with babies coming every other year. Yea, I liked sex as much as I liked to cut beef. So the wife said we need more money. She still says that 40 years latter.

Back then you had to know somebody to get a job in the No.1 supermarket in the country, A&P. I couldn't do it in Scranton but we had relatives in Bridgeport, Conn. so on one visit up there I walked into a grand opening In Strafford to see if I could get a job and low and behold the meat supervisor was from Taylor, Pa a suburb of Scranton and he hired me on the spot. I became their chicken man. Cutting chickens by the thousands, 85 lb. crates packed with ice.  I spent 3 years in that divisions and got homesick and went back to Scranton to reapply and then it was easy getting in. I spent another 12 years their. Cutter, manager, and finally making a meat buyer then supervisor.

I got a tip from a friend of mine in the corporate office, that the Scranton division was in trouble, their manufacturing plant in Horseheads N.Y. was a failure. A one mile long building, which cost the co. a fortune and the stuff coming out of there did not meet customer satisfaction. That's when I made my move and took a job with AFD in Scranton as a road supervisor and retail meat merchandiser for 300 independents. Everybody was on hanging beef, we bought from Swift, Armour, Wilson and they were getting their beef from a unknown co. called IBP. Yea the boxed beef IBP,  they were selling off were the yield grade 4's & 5's and that's what we got. I spent several years with AFD but I knew there had to be a better way rather than hanging beef. We were invited to visit IBP and learn about box beef and then my job was to help to convert the member stores from hanging to boxed.

I loved doing that so much that the IBP rep asked me if I would consider working for them and I did and spent several years with them in the Mid Atlantic area converting & selling boxed beef. Then we opened up a Modern Meat Management school in Fairfax Va where I was one of the Instructors.  Not only did I love the wholesale and retail business I loved the packing house business as well and wanted to learn more. So in 1980 I made another change and to make my long story short. I started with Mopac, in Lansdale, Pa.  then on to Murco in Plainwell, Mi and then finally my last 15 years was with Excel/Taylor Packnig  where I finished my career as V.P. of Operations. From $26 a week to $3500 per week with stock options and the executive perks, company cars, company planes, expense accounts etc. I graduated high school by the skin of my teeth, but I have a degree in E&E "experience & exposure. I thank God every day for what He done for me providing me with a "good work ethics, integrity, strong sense of responsibility, humility, team work, and most of all discipline. Trust me, it wasn't all peaches and cream. I had my ups & bottoms along with personal hardships. Me and Jack Daniels were best buds, but  Bill W. came to my rescue, no doubt sent by God.

For those young guys out there that need any help at all concerning our business please don't hesitate to email me I have so much knowledge to share and I am willing to help anyone and everyone. I miss the business immensely and just helping and talking about it brings me back to it. Thanks for reading my story.  

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