cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"I hope you each have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Since Andrea, Rachel, Matt, and I leave for Utah this afternoon, I decided to send this week's Thoughtlet two days early, rather than a week late. There was a flood of memories when I was having a shower at Ben and Sarah's and picked up the Johnson's baby shampoo, and I thought I would use this forum to share them, and some of the conversations and thoughts which followed and which probably derived from these memories.
When I was a teenager up my spending money each year came from raising a stock show calf and selling it at the Southern Utah Auction the week after Labor Day. My Mom had showed cattle when she was growing up, getting grand champions, and so it was kind of expected of me to show a steer each year. It was a good experience for me, and the steers became good friends. They listened to all of my problems, and never talked back. I probably didn't talk to them very much, just like I tend to not talk much now. We just kind of experienced each other. One of the hardest parts of raising a stock show calf was to wash it and groom it. We would put halters on them at the first of the summer and tie them up to a fence post. Then, when they stopped fighting the rope, we would teach them to walk with us. Dad helped me the early years, because they were so much bigger than I was. By the time I was finishing High School I just took care of all of this. After they were broke to lead we would start to wash and groom them. Cowhide is tough stuff, and so we used liquid laundry detergent, a hose, and a floor scrub brush. When we got any of this soap in their eyes, they would get really mad, and jump around and break the halter, etc. So I quickly learned to use baby shampoo, which doesn't burn eyes like laundry detergent, when washing my stock show calves.
A paragraph does not do justice to the hours and hours spent working with these steers. Grandpa Hafen bought me a very expensive calf one year, and Dad nor I trimmed it's feet, it grew really long, ugly hoofs, then it got a cyst the size of a softball in its cheek, and I was not able to show it at the stock show. Darrell had built a corral by the diesel pump for his stock show sheep when he lived with Grandma. I remember playing in that corral a lot. Dad and I built a corral for my stock show calves, including a tin shed to protect them from the rain. Walking and washing the calves each night after school was one of the experiences which taught me to work. I have often felt bad about not providing similar training for you kids. As it started to cool down in the fall, I would wash them every night so they would be cold and grow long hair. Then after washing them with baby shampoo and laundry detergent, I would comb them. Combing involved parting the mane, and then making waves down their sides. It was fun to make patterns, and to see how they looked after they dried and were fluffed up a little bit with a brush. These calves were my friends, and yet since I worked in Nelson Meat Packing Plant, I knew exactly what their fate was.
Jared and Melanie stopped by to visit Sunday night on their way back from Vidor. Jared's Dad had a 500 person banquet to cater and Jared and Melanie went over to help. Melanie described `picking up raw hamburger' and `carrying raw briskets' and said she told Jared `He could not have married another girl who would do this kind of work with him. I chuckled to myself and pointed out how I had never really exposed any of you kids to what what happened in the meat packing plant. I always used baby shampoo to wash your hair.
When I got to Melanie and Jared's apartment in Austin on Tuesday, Jared was the first one home. He asked me about the meat packing plant, and about how we used briskets. As part of getting away from baby shampoo, I'm going to share some of what we talked about. The brisket was considered garbage meat, and was only used for hamburger. It wasn't until I moved to Houston I learned people actually ate brisket. Eating tounge or sweetbreads (thyroid glands) seemed more appropriate to me than eating brisket. I explained the brisket is from the chest of a cow, between the front legs and up to the neck. When Jared asked if there was any other meat on the carcus I chuckled and described rump roasts, sirloins, T-bones, tenderloins, etc. I remember the hours spent triming any meat off of ribs, briskets, heads, etc. to get meat to feed the insatiable hamburger grinder and hamburger patty machine. When Roice Krueger came to visit once, he looked at me in my white meat packing robe, covered with blood and pieces of hamburger, and asked how I got so much on me. I recall his reaction as I replied that `the hamburger machine spits.' These were not baby shampoo days.
Jared was interested in how the cattle were killed. The process was pretty simple. A truck would typically bring 20 cattle, 15 sheep, and 12 pigs from the auction on Saturday and move them into the corrals by the scales. Once we were unloading a mean Brahma Bull and someone forgot to shut the gate at the bottom of the loading chute. I was standing at the top of the loading chute as the truck drove off, and the Brahma came up the chute after me. I jumped off, ran 50 feet to the holding corral and cleared a 10 foot fence. I was going so fast I went right over the top of the fence, landed on a cross board, and if it hadn't broke my fall as I broke it with my weight and fell to the ground, I would have probably broken my neck.
Monday mornings we would move about 10 cattle into the holding pen. During the summers, from the time I was about 12 years old, my job started with driving a cow or steer out of the holding pen, and up a chute that looked like a loading chute. Once the cow was at the top of the chute, I'd drop a gate behind it, take the 22-caliber single-shot rifle, load a long-bullet, and a shoot the cow in the back of the head between the ears. The cow would drop, and the guys on the killing floor would raise up a metal door and roll the cow onto the cement floor. By the time I lifted the gate for the next cow, and got inside, the cow would be on its back and have 4"x4"x2' blocks under each side of it's back so the feet were in the air. Whoever was working this part would have bled the cow, put most of the blood in a container which was put in a big barrel and sold. I don't know what it was used for. Rhass Matheson, the state meat inspector, was there with his test tube to collect and label blood from each of the cows we killed. They would skin down to the hoofs, and cut off the legs below the knees. They would also cut the hide down the center from the throat to the tail. Then I would take the electric skinner, a 4 inch rotating disk, and cut the hide away from the meat down to the floor. When I stated out, I always got in trouble for putting knicks in the hide, which made the hides much less valuable. And there was no washing them with baby shampoo at this stage.
A winch was lowered and a large triangular hook was hooked into the back legs, and the cow was lifted up. As it was lifted up, the hide was pulled off, and the underbelly cut upen so the entrails could be pulled out and put in a large stainless steel container, which was used to take them out to the back. I cut a lot of sex organs out of cattle, and I'm sure it has had an effect on my attitude towards natural processes. The heart and liver were harvested and set aside. Then a large meat saw was used to split the carcass in half. The hoist was lifted some more, and each half of beef was put on it's own hook on a rail, and moved into the cooler. There were two parts to the cooler. The chill room was much colder, and the carcasses were left there overnight. The cooler was a large room, and was usually very full, since there was always meat in there ageing. By the time they started to split the carcass, I was heading outside, with my bloodied yellow plastic apron on, to move the next cow up to the killing chute.
Sheep were moved into the killing chute as a group of up to a dozen. The metal gate would be lifted, a sheep grabbed and pulled onto the cement floor, and it's throat slit. Then a similar process to the cattle. Pigs were the hardest. They also were brought in as a group. The gate was lifted a little bit, and a chain was wrapped around a back leg. The pig was then hoisted into the air, squealing at the top of it's lungs. One of the guys would stick it with a knife and bleed it. Then the pig would be dropped into a cauldron of boiling water. After a few minutes, it would be pulled onto a metal table, and all of it's hair would be scraped off. Then it would go through a process similar to the cattle and sheep. From the early 1940's through the summer of 1969, when Texas President Lyndon Johnson's wholesome meat act of 1965 went into effect (../9721.html), Nelson Packing Plant operated as a private business. During World War II, it was the only meat packing plant between Salt Lake and Las Vegas, and Dad's delivery's were awaited with anticipation. Just as Jared's Dad's catering is awaited today.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the line of thought I have taken this week started when I had a shower at Ben and Sarah's and used the Johnson's Baby Shampoo. I went to Dallas to share the Offshore Eastern Louisiana AMI Prospectus (0043.html, 0044.html, 0045.html, and 0046.html) with two groups. The Rudman Patnership in downtown Dallas was not interested in offshore Louisiana, yet they are interested in testing the technologies on some of their other properties. We agreed I would send them a proposal for applying automated self-classification to their properties in Washington County, Colorado. It was a good meeting with Jim Trimble and Trey Sibley. Wolfe Rudman came in for a few minutes. Jim took me to lunch at the Petroleum Club next door. Then I drove out to Flower Mound, about 15 miles north-northwest of Dallas, to meet with Scott Lakey and James Jinright. They are really nice guys, and have leased some property in Southern Colorado in Rio Grande County. We signed non-circumventation and confidentiality agreements, and I proceeded to give them 4 hours of lecture on seismic technologies. It was fun, and I am sending them a proposal for applying the automated self-classifcation technologies to their properties. They are young businessmen. Scott is expecting his first baby, and looks like Kevin Costner. James looks like Elvis Presley. They are married to sisters. Their conference room table was covered with varous types of India liquor, which they are considering selling in the United States. I told them I would personally never be willing to run a business selling things which destroy people's lives, like alcohol, and encouraged them to stay away from that business. I doubt if they heard me, as they are at the age and temperment where having money come in is more important than consequences resulting from gaining money. I like them, and it will be intesting to see if we end up working together and if I will have any influence on their choices.
Monday evening was one of the highlights of my life. Ethan is a smiler. Toy Story II was on TV, and later some nice music was put on the CD. It was very nice to be in an atmosphere where I felt completely comfortable. Melanie and Jared mentioned that a few times since their marriage they have found themselves in R-rated environments, where they are not comfortable, and it is so nice to know my standards are acknowlegded and respected. We took a lot of pictures. I have not moved them to the web yet, and I will. We talked, ate spinach lasagna, and before I knew it I was asleep on the couch holding Ethan. What a wonderful blessing Grandchildren are. My insecurities melted as I held him and talked to Ben and Sarah. Ben has talked to his bosses about an overseas assignment, and he said I could mention it. There is a chance to spend 4 years in Melbourne, Australia, where John Denham's family live. There is also a chance to go to Ipswich, England, where I spent 9 months of my mission and have numerous friends and acquaintances. Ben and Sarah you both look so good. My main concern for you two is life may be too good and too easy for you, and you might find yourself out of balance with some of the aspects of life. It is important to balance the emotional, financial, intellectual, mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of our lives to insure finding true peace and joy. At least, I have found I have problems and need some baby shampoo when one of these spokes is flat.
Tuesday I slept in. Maybe it was staying up until midnight on Sunday, and getting up at 4:30 Monday morning. Ben woke me up as he was brushing dalmation hairs off his clothes. Ben, you looked so good as you left for work. I am very proud of you. I got up, shaved, showered, got ready, and was able to hold Ethan for a little while before leaving for Austin. Mr. Massad was not in town, and so I just left him a copy of the prospectus. Sara and I ate lunch at Texas Frenchbread. Sara, you look so good! I'm very proud of your efforts to be an outstanding student. Remember the balance stuff I wrote about above. I had a good meeting with Brigham Exploration. It was interesting that one of the guys I hired to go to China for Landmark, in the team Gary Jones was in, was there and participated in the meeting. Craig Pierson. What a small world.
Melanie and Jared, your apartment is cool and just right. Guys, I know it seems small, and large will come. Enjoy the simple while you have it. It was fun to talk to Jared about the meat packing plant, although Melanie was the one who pointed out we were on our way to dinner, and said `Dad, isn't there something else to talk about?' I got a picture of Roice wearing his rubic cube and holding his 12" home-made rubic cube. We went to an Italian restaurant. What a nice evening. Roice asked me who I voted for and why, and then got me to calm down when I started being too emotional about my reaction to Gore's pro-abortion and drug legalization stances. Neither Melanie nor Roice voted. Oh well! Roice sent me a link to the neatest poster (http://www.peacockmaps.com). After dinner, I stopped at spent an hour and a half with Pliney Fisk. I had offended him with an e-mail, and there were some bridges to build. Good discussions, and it resulted in an unsolicited proposal to Arne Vedlitz at the Bush School at Texas A&M. I got home from Austin about 11:30 Tuesday night.
Wednesday morning I slept in until 6:00, and still ran with Andrea down to the church to pick up the car which Rachel drove to Seminary. After shaving, showering, and dressing, I came into the office, and one of the first e-mail's I saw was from Parents Television Coucil E-Alert. It says:
As I read this, I was overwhelmed by how much better I had it growing up working in the meat packing plant, compared to what you kids face. I could wash my hands and take a shower. However, this kind of junk can not be washed out of our minds with baby shampoo nor with the strongest laundry detergent. At both a LifeWay Parent's meeting, and in one of my sessions with Rob and Nancy White, the impact of how drugs physically change the brain was discussed. There was a newspaper a few weeks ago which described how even a single cigarette or a single drink of alcohol can rewire some people's brains and turn them into addicts. I'm convinced ponography does the same thing. I asked one youth why they like to watch movies like Alien. The response was `I like it.' This is the same response you get from a drug addict. The endorphins, released by our brain in response to drugs and stimulation like violence and pornography, are exactly the same, and create the same addictive behaviors. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, as I think of the challenges Ethan's generation is going to have to face if there are not major changes in our society.
I spent Wednesday working on proposals for The Rudman Partnership and Northstar Capital. Matt forgot his lunch money, Ken Turner was late picking up some stuff, Andrea had too much to do, and I was late on an RC-SIG teleconference because I was trying to make everyone happy. Wednesday evening we had an excellent career night with Brother Stine describing his job as a Portfolio Manager. He also described several high adventures he took youth on. I worked in the office until about 11:00, by which time I could not keep my eyes open any more.
Yesterday morning I drove Rachel to seminary, and used the treadmill for the first time since buying it as a birthday present for Andrea last January, while I watched a special on the young generals of the Civil War. I had no idea General Custer had such a major role in the Civil War. As I watched the show, I thought of Roice, Ben, and Paul. There were two articles in the paper that caught my attention:
I do notice that when one thing that means a lot does not go well, or as I feel it should, then there seems to be several problems in a row. I could not help but wonder if we are going to see a World War III, and how it would affect you kids if it happened. I finally got the rest of the information needed for the proposals about 5:30 Wednesday night. Riley stopped by to visit, and we insisted he eat dinner with us. He was laid off by Marathon, and we talked about different options he could pursue. He helped me clean up the proposals. It took me until 11:00 last night to rework them. I was wiped out when I fell asleep. Andrea has been busy sewing, and getting ready for the trip.
Then I woke up at about 3:30 this morning, and came in and worked until 8:00 on reworking the proposals yet again, and writing this Thoughlet. I couldn't get back to sleep. Maybe if I just had some baby shampoo? ...
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will say hi to Bridget and Justin for all of you."