Heads and Tales

Writing as a daily practice is habit for me since the early 1970's. The following tale is about some bovine heads and tails tumbling down a chute from the fifth floor of an abattoir at the corner of west 65Th and Storer Avenue. My original story is securely lost in my personal papers , the buildings and bloody enterprises that the area plied long gone.......Cleveland's stockyards district was a working wholesale area for the slaughter of live cattle , sheep , and pigs from the nineteenth century until the late 1970's . The west side of West 65Th street between Clark and Storer Avenues provided this fertile killing ground , and if you look around those parts today you will still see some of the vestiges of this trade 's buildings that remain in reuse today. At the northern edge of west 65Th street stands the stately building the offices of The Cleveland Union Stockyards , with it's animal heads in relief , and affording a solid business like presence to those who enter. The parking lot for the K-Mart and the K-Mart itself the actual former penned areas for the routing of the animals awaiting slaughter. Actual urban cowboys on horseback worked the animals paths to the chutes from the adjoining railroad tracks to the pens. Fairly exciting viewing replete with the animal noises and often a very heavy odor of a variety of manures to complement the experience......The entirity of West 65th street on it's west side ws comprised of slaughterhouse concerns. DiCillo, Krasny , weinberg , among many others. At the southern edge of West 65Th street stood the largest of all the local slaughterhouses Gibbs Meats. One sunny morning I was walking from up near lake Erie down West 65Th street taking in the sights and sounds of our still bustling city. At one side of the Gibbs plant was parked a large stake truck , and I was quite amused by the sounds and sights that greeted my eyes and ears. A long terrible mooo!followed by a loud pop as if a gun exploding , then first a severed cow's head , then tail down a long chute and landing with a audible thud into the trucks body. I had missed the event of the cattle being led up the ramps to the killing floor , though it ws not to hard to figure out how and why they arrived. Where these spare parts were headed was still a mystery. Perhaps to another rendering plant near bye for further processing. Being no stranger to beef tongue , I assumed that this part of the head had been prior removed. The tails and area about them , often synonymous with a biped politician , a larger mystery? What does one do with the severed chunk cow's ass , tail attached ? I am aware now that these less than appetizing beef chunks are trimmed and turned into hamburger...... The east side of West 65Th street was comprised of packing houses , most of which purchased the killed and dressed carcasses from the slaughterhouses across the street and turned pigs into bacon or chops, lamb and beef into the many and diverse meat products consumed by Clevelanders. All the major national packers were represented , Swift , Cudhay, and Morrell to name but a few. The POC and Standard breweries plants were on the northern edge of this district along Clark and West 65Th , and the spent grains were sold as feed for the animals awaiting slaughter..... All of this is but memory now , and the feedlots are many States away and these animals are now killed and processed by the tens of thousands per hour instead of a a day. Beef tasted better back then , and I do miss the stockyards! Book selling Time! Clay Herrick's CLEVELAND LANDMARK'S will suffice for today. A well produced volume documenting Cleveland architecture. No stockyards photographs , alas. Best wishes to all my Family , John and Kim , Get well Orley!

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