What person had the most influence on you being a meat cutter, or whatPersuasion was use to get you to be one.
Myself I was a young stockman 20 years old, I worked in a store with a meat man that was one of the best. he had spend many years with big chains. we were a small store and he was in his 60's. he had a wonderful personalty, great customer service. his name was Jeffrey Wilson
I use to watch him through the door cut meat and listen to him talk to customers. one day he call me back to where he was drinking coffee, ask me what I was going to do with my life. we talk about things I had thought of, but most of those you need a high school education then, I had drop out of school to help take care of my mother, brother & sister.
He told me, son i have watch you, you are smart, you will work, you can talk to anyone. why don't you let me teach you to cut meat. that is a trade where you don't need a high school education and one where you can work your way up to better things. I agree to give it a try, I was working with him four years later when he die of a heart attack, they gave me the market managers job over two other older cutters because they said he taught me everything he knew and it was like he was still there. That made me feel like I had learn what he taught me. He was like a dad to me and I will never forget him
Al White....... My Meat mentor and initial teacher at Pemberton Valley Supermarket. He was my boss when I became a wrapper. A short time into the job he asked me if I wanted to learn to cut. I asked if it paid more and he laughed and said Hell yeah :) I said "Give me a Knife"! That was 10 years ago and I will be forever grateful for the trade he gave me. I started out at 10$ an hour and now require 21$ an hour and get it :) I still have lots to learn but I still Love my job :)
The owner of my first job, a steakhouse, influenced me the most. I started as a young teen washing dishes. I hated it. He had trouble keeping meat cutters. I begged and pleaded to be trained, and eventually he broke after losing another cutter. A cool room was highly preferable to the heat of a kitchen. I remember him teaching me and telling me "Meat cutting is a trade. It might come in handy some day." Little did I know...
I went off to college and was talking to the apartment manager. Another woman that worked for her told me her husband was a grocery manager at the local Albertson's and thought he said they were looking for people in the meat department. So, off I went in search of beer money. They didn't trust anyone who said they could cut meat, especially at my age, so I peddled seafood for a while. Then I worked with the closer, who was happy to have any kind of help, and learned as much as I could. He picked up on my knife skills and word got around. He left for Nebraska, and I started cleaning up. I did anything asked of me to build trust and prove to them I could handle the work. It was all downhill from there.
Mine would be a young meat man a few years older than me at the time, I was 16, he was 19 and a cutting room manger in another store. An my market manager at the time, a old vet of 32 years named Joe Morgan. When I went into the market it was for the few dollars more I was promise, I actually hated it, I couldn't stand to have grease on my hands LOL After being in there for five weeks, my raise never did come through, and when I ask about it, Joe told me he was just keeping me till he got some one else as I had no interest in being a meat cutter. I was a big boy and he was keeping me to carry the hanging beef for him.
The next day, he reach behind the saw blade to to catch a chuck roast being in a hurry as he had four women wanting orders, he took half his thumb off long ways. they sent this young cutter to replace him while he was out for two & half weeks.
I could talk with this guy, he was three years older than me. he was a fast cutter, full of bull ****, watching him made me want to learn about meat, I guess I ask to many questions LOL He told me, you see those books up on that shelve, they are meat cutting books, get you one, look at the picture, go in the cooler and get you the meat to match the picture, cut it likes the book says, if you mess it up, we will grind it.
I was on FIRE, as I cut this stuff, I liked it, He taught me more in a week than Joe had in five, BUT then I didn't really want to learn but I did now. These books were my bible, I even took one home every night to read.
When Joe came back I could cut most everything in the case, not perfect but good lol After he was back a week, Joe told me one day, get you a cup of coffee and lets go in the back and have a talk. I thought he was going to tell me that he had found another man, I had a surprise coming.
Like a Father he told me, son you quite school, you are like a lot of young men, think you know it all. you need to either go back to school or learn a trade. I don't think you smart enough to go back to school so you need a trade. Meat cutting is a trade that will give you a job for life and you can make good money at it.
then he told me, I don't know what happen to you while I was gone But what ever it was it was a good thing for you. you have learn to cut stuff it usually takes cutters a year to cut and your good, your fast, you have a interest in it, NOW are you ready to become a meat cutter and let me teach you how to make money out of it. The company I was with has 23 stores, Joe was usally the top profit man every month.
I was on a high, I told him Yes sir, He taught me well, and talk the company into giving me my first market managers job after a year with him. I kept that job 10 months and a A&P supervisor came by one day and ask me If I cut most of the meat in the case, I told him yes. He said, be at Navco Rd A&P in two weeks and you have a job waiting there as a cutting room manager at 250.00 a week, at the time I was making 150.00 as a manager with my company. AS T-BONE SAID, " IT WAS ALL DOWN HILL FROM THERE " LOL
you know butcher29 that made me think, that must be why I'm a good husband, I had training from 5 wifes.
BY THE WAY, if you see Irish Squirrel, Tell him some one is looking for him, Don't know his name but he looks bad !!I THINK HE IS A REDNECK SQUIRREL, calls his self BUBBA
For me it was my Dad. He has been cutting meat for over 40yrs. I had the opportunity to work with my Dad for a short while and he taugh so much in 3 months. He forgot more than I will ever learn...lol
