Ep. 1 - From Slaughterhouse to Louisiana Landmark: 3rd Generation Butcher - Donald Bourgeois

Miracles in Meat Podcast | Ep. 1 – The Legacy of Bourgeois Meat Market

130+ Years of Cajun Tradition & Butchery in South Louisiana

In the debut episode of Miracles in Meat, Shane Thibodaux, a fourth-generation butcher at Bourgeois Meat Market, sits down with his uncle, Donald Bourgeois, the third-generation owner, to explore the rich history of one of the world’s oldest butcher shops.

Founded in 1891 in Thibodaux, Louisiana, Bourgeois Meat Market has been a cornerstone of Cajun culinary traditions, delivering legendary smoked meats and boudin to generations of customers. This episode dives deep into the family stories, struggles, and innovations that have kept the business thriving for over a century.

Inside This Episode:

🔪 The origins of Bourgeois Meat Market and its impact on South Louisiana
🔪 The trials of building the famed Super Kite and modernizing a historic business
🔪 How a door-to-door meat shop grew into a globally recognized brand
🔪 The importance of family, tradition, and resilience in business

Why You Should Listen:

This episode is more than a history lesson—it’s a blueprint for preserving legacy in a changing world. Whether you're in business, food, or just love a good Cajun story, this conversation highlights the power of hard work, innovation, and family values.

💥 Exclusive Offer

🛒 Use code: MIMPODCAST for 10% off your cart at checkout!

🔗 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website: www.bourgeoismeatmarket.com
📍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bourgeoismeatmarket
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bourgeoismeatmarket/
📩 Email: Shane@bourgeoismm@gmail.com

 

Transcript

 

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Music.

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You're listening to the Miracles in Meat Podcast. I'm Shane Thibodaux,

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a fourth-generation butcher at one of the oldest meat markets in the world.

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My great-grandfather started this business by slaughtering one cow or pig at

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a time and selling the cuts door-to-door on horse and buggy.

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Today, our products are enjoyed across the globe.

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I'll attempt to give you some insight as to how we got here and explore the

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challenges we've had along the way.

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At Bourgeois, our mission is to preserve our heritage generation after generation

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through legendary Cajun flavors and the development of relationships not customers.

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Since 1891, Bourgeois has maintained age-old culinary traditions that fuel the

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South Louisiana lifestyle.

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Over the past 133 years our Cajun products have gained global recognition and

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for tens of thousands of folks around the world the Bourgeois Cajun Lady logo is a symbol of home.

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Today the fourth generation butchers sit at the nine-foot maple block with loyal

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loyal customers to discuss the adventures, skills, and passions that guide each of their legacies.

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These conversations will become priceless resources for future generations of any industry.

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This is our way of maintaining the spirit, purpose, and traditions of our lost

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arts in a world of change.

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133 years, four generations. We're just getting started.

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Music.

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Hey there, here we go. Episode number one, or uno, if you are tuning in from

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Texas or further southwest.

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This podcast has been something I've been putting off for a long time now,

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at least a couple and a half months or three.

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And I finally just kind of threw myself into the fire and got really uncomfortable.

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But that's what I needed. I don't have a clue what I'm doing yet,

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but my curiosity often leads me into these uncomfortable situations and I kind

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of just learned to love the dislearning process and that's what this is about. It's about learning.

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I figured the best place to start would be with the third generation owner,

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my uncle, Donald Boudreaux.

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I've learned so much from him over the years and I really think we'd be doing

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our future generations a huge disservice if we couldn't provide them with as much.

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Wisdom as we can from from this old breed

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so here it is Donald bourgeois

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so if you asked me why I was

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doing this or why I felt like I needed to do it before

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you ask that I would ask you why did y'all build super kite that's how I would

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answer if you were to ask me why I'm doing this I would say okay well why did

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you build super kite that's what I would ask so let's start with super kite

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and ask, I'm just going to ask what it is.

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I know a little bit about it, but no one else does.

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Yeah. Super kite. This is not, everybody's got a different recollection of it

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and my memory is not the best, but best I can remember, it was me and Andy, my cousin Andy's idea.

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And then, you know, the brothers kind of joined in and jumped in with us and,

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you know, they had, they were older and a lot more, you know,

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had more knowledge and engineering, his big brother, Jimmy. Yeah.

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And like I said, I could be very wrong about this, but my idea was to just,

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I just wanted to build a, we used to fly kites.

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Daddy, I mean, we used to build our own kites.

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And it was fun. You know, usually just the spring, it wasn't something we did

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year round, but it's funny.

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It's just the spring months, you know, April or so, May, we'd a lot,

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you know, we didn't, we were a big family.

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We didn't, you didn't have a Walmart on every other corner or,

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you know, shopping center. So we built our own.

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And that, you know, daddy, daddy will show us how kind of, you know,

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the first couple of them.

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And then from there we'd build our own. But we just wanted to build a really, really big one. Who?

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Why? Who needed it bigger?

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I just don't know. We just wanted to build a big kite. Was Papa behind any of

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that? Was he egging it on?

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Not that I can remember. Like I said, I was pretty young. I'd say young. I was in high school.

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I can vividly remember getting the paper we used to build the surface of it,

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the paper and all. We got a lot of it from high school.

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From one of our teachers. They had it there and it wasn't doing anything.

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So we used, I remember the red and blue stripe, we got that from the school.

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And I think the white, we might've got what Biff was working at the time.

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I think we might've got that there at Vita Paint.

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And in terms of dimensions, what was the goal? And then what was the outcome?

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Just 25 foot. It was an easy number.

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And I think the width is supposed to be a half the, I mean, a third of the height, I think.

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So basically about an eight and a half foot width. total, I think. Or maybe...

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And it's, it's, it's been a while. 25 feet long. I'm trying to remember the width of it.

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But daddy, daddy helped us with the bridle. I remember that.

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We had to, that was a big concern, bridle and tail.

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And that's where Jimmy came in with, with his, he was at LSU at the time working

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on his engineering degree.

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So he, he, he definitely had, had, had some help with that.

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Cause I mean, think about a, a little two and a half foot kite that you build

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and it needs, it needs about a, don't need a 10 foot tail, you know, eight to 10 foot tail.

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So start doing the math on a times 10, you know? So, yeah, I think we ended

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up with 150 feet of tail on it.

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And everyone was nervous, or no, was no one nervous.

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Everyone was just excited. Yeah, we were just excited. We just wanted to see it fly.

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Knowing that someone would break an arm. No, no, we never thought that.

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It's a shame that the one thing flew, and it flew really good.

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It's just I was on the kite end, me and Andy, I guess because we had so much to do with it.

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We were holding the kite. We were the actual ones that started running with it as it lifted.

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We held the bottom end down until we couldn't anymore and ran with it. And what's pulling it?

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Truck. A truck. Yeah, we had it. And something happened in the truck.

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There's a lot of issues about the truck and they had it. Apparently they did not fasten it.

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I don't know why they didn't just tie it to a hitch or whatever,

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they didn't. I don't know why.

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I think they maybe wanted to put out more line in case they needed to.

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So they had it to where they could release to, and it would,

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But from what I understand, they had a, you know, the old trucks,

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they had the, I don't know what they call it, the well, the hole wells in the sides of the beds.

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And they had a pipe in there and they made some wraps with it around that pipe.

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But what happened, I don't know why I didn't think of this, but the pipe started

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spinning, you know, because it wasn't anchored. They had a drag system on it.

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Yeah, but they didn't think. They thought they could just, the pipe was just

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going to stay there and not spin.

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Right. And they could release line if they needed to after, you know,

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after you spun it around about four, five, six times, you could,

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you know, loosen it a little bit, but they didn't take into effect that it would spin.

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So what happened, it started doing that and they panicked at the truck.

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And so the kite started, it was up pretty high. The tail was off the ground.

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So it was up 150 feet at least. And how many people there to watch?

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Mostly just off a bunch of our family. We had a lot of cousins,

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you know. So that could be a hundred, that could be 50 to a hundred people.

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Yeah. Easy 50, easy 50. Yeah. I'd say no less than 50. Yeah.

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And we got it on video. You know, we have some video, old video of it.

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But so what ended up happening, and like I said,

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I wasn't in a truck, but so when that's happened and somebody maybe

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got thrown out the truck broke their arm and the

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kite started falling so they hurt i think they finally made a

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wrap around the hitch to save it yeah and daddy panicked and gunned it to get

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it back up to get it back up in the air and he panicked and he hit it too darn

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hard and fast and it couldn't take the pressure of being pulled that fast such

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a big kite you can't fly a kite that big and you know 15 20 only if y'all had an engineer on deck.

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We'd have flown it more than once If that incident wouldn't have happened I

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was convinced we would have flown it And flown it again,

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So it didn't stay in the air very long It stayed a while and it went straight

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It was amazing how steady it was You think a kite would Especially handmade

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ones they kind of rock back and forth And kind of erratic This thing just went

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straight up just as pretty as could be

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And I was convinced it was going to fly Or it did fly but I mean I was convinced

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it would have stayed up if they could have got it up above the trees a little more.

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Above the trees. That's got to be the goal.

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To get that steady breeze where it's not sporadic.

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But it was pretty. I'm sure there's much more to that story and I'd like to

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get a couple other people involved. Absolutely.

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Everybody's got a different version of that story. We'll come back to that one

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day. I don't remember John being there.

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I'm sure he was, but not. Might've been in a car seat.

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He might've not been there. John B Maybe he might've been off with his buddies

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or something. I'm not sure. No, he wasn't that little.

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Well, we'll get another crew together and we'll get that whole story out.

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Yeah, that would be interesting. We'll get artifacts and things and make plans for the next one.

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Now, they did another one, Super Kite 2. I was not involved with that one at all. And it flew?

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No. Okay, good. No, they never even stood it up, I don't think.

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Because our generation has plans for Super Kite 3 and we're going to do 50 foot.

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So, we'll come back to that one day. Can I give you advice on that?

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Yes. This is just my advice. Of course.

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You know what? 30 foot's bigger than 25. Okay.

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Which is fair. I just don't think structurally flat. You know what I'm talking about?

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Now, maybe a box kite, yeah, 50 feet. But that- A flat kite.

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A flat kite like that. And I don't know the term they use for a flat kite, but-

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I mean, to me personally, a box kite, it's cheating, but that's just me.

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I think if you want to beat us, it has to be a flat surface kite, and 30-foot is doable.

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That's fair. We'll bring it up to the board. The 25, yeah, the 25 was very doable,

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and the construction materials now are a lot better than what we had to work with.

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So, yeah, 30-foot is very- A lot more expensive, I'm sure. Yeah,

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but, I mean, you make a lot more money than I did. Right.

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I got to remind you, I made $1.50 for a half a day's work working in the fields

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for purple. And that's just not enough.

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In fact, Mr. Junior, I saw him on the outside coming over here, Junior Purkle.

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His brothers, actually, I worked for Wilbert and LJ, the shallot farmers. Yeah.

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Six in the morning till 11, you got $1.50. And then in the evening, you come back at four.

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Well, we meet about three. So we get started about four, probably work till

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dark. And that was $1.50.

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And that was our summertime job. Probably about 11 years old,

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we started doing that. So think about this. You spent your whole career here.

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And now that you're retired, you're back to doing what you started off doing,

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which is farming. That's a good point. I never thought about that. And no one's paying you.

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Well, I mean, I get food. You get enjoyment out of it, right?

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Yeah, I get a lot of satisfaction.

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It's a good exercise. It's bad. Yeah, at this age, you need to keep moving for one thing.

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But I mean, yeah, to do something and not get satisfaction or just,

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it's nice to be able to work your butt off like you do in a garden and you reap rewards from it.

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You know, in any job, I think you need to reap some type of reward,

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whether it's personal or something, you know, some type of, gives you some type of joys inside.

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And yeah, yeah. And it's a double for me because I like to work hard and I like

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the garden and then I get to eat what I grow.

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So that's like double for me. I really like that. We talked about the family,

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you know, a typical family gathering consisting of 50 to 100 people.

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Absolutely. So you were raised one of seven. Yes.

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Tell me all about that as it pertains to the business.

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So maybe earliest memories, you know, walking over here, all of that.

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My best, I guess I have memories before, but what I remember,

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we all had chores to do. We all had a chore on Saturday, especially.

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Saturday mornings, mama didn't want us being lazy, and daddy too.

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So my chore on Saturday mornings was to come out here and I had to clean up

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the parking lot. I had to rake up any, you know, trash, pick up any,

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any thing like that, and then sweep the, the front area where the customers came in.

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So that was kind of, you know, probably about when I was older and back then,

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you know, it wasn't nearly as much traffic on the road as you have now.

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It was a two lane road in front.

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So probably about seven years old,

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eight years old, probably I was coming across and starting to do that.

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And, and, and John, you know, I don't remember what their chores were,

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but they, they all, we all had, had something like that.

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That's probably my earliest memory, but I used to, man, I used to love coming

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here. I missed Mr. Cleave and back then Raymond Jackson worked for us.

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And they were both, as far as I know, they were raised on Johnson Ridge.

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I know that's where they lived at the time for sure. But yeah,

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they were just great mentors for me. Really, really just funny.

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Really loved what they did and instilled that love in me, I think.

200
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Those two guys. You looked up to those guys.

201
00:12:42,277 --> 00:12:45,097
Oh, absolutely. They were real men. They were tough.

202
00:12:46,617 --> 00:12:50,197
The customers loved them. They had a way with people. They really had a special

203
00:12:50,197 --> 00:12:55,137
gift with people. and I picked up on that, you know, and they were really good to me.

204
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I mean, just, they didn't have to be, but they treated me with,

205
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you know, a lot of dignity and respect and just, they made me feel like a little

206
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man kind of at times, you know, that was special for a little boy, you know.

207
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I talk about that a lot with our guys, our managers and, you know,

208
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the guys that have been here for 10 years on what kind of impact they put on

209
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these high school 16-year-olds that are going to work back there for the summer.

210
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And I don't think they understand the impact over 20 years.

211
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You know, you take that kid and he's now 30 and he's got kids.

212
00:13:26,857 --> 00:13:30,437
I guarantee you he's going to pull some cards that you threw to him,

213
00:13:30,537 --> 00:13:33,577
you know, on the boot and a table in the back.

214
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And I don't think they do realize that. I realize it because I had the same experience.

215
00:13:39,377 --> 00:13:43,057
I was here with Calvin and Chris and Miss Karen and Jenny.

216
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And I looked up to all of them. And I think it's powerful. I had some great

217
00:13:47,637 --> 00:13:48,877
workers. I really did, man.

218
00:13:49,317 --> 00:13:51,857
I loved them. Loved every one of them in their own special way.

219
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They were all great. They really were.

220
00:13:54,777 --> 00:13:59,517
So you worked for Pawpaw, fairly young age. But when did it get serious?

221
00:13:59,717 --> 00:14:02,117
High school, probably, you know, going into college.

222
00:14:02,677 --> 00:14:06,797
I mean, college, I didn't, I loved high school. I had a blast in high school. I had fun.

223
00:14:07,557 --> 00:14:11,417
College was tough. Didn't like it. Never liked it. I struggled going there.

224
00:14:11,417 --> 00:14:15,677
But my first three semesters, some of these college kids look at me like I'm

225
00:14:15,677 --> 00:14:19,257
nuts, but I took 21 hours and I worked.

226
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I worked 40, 50, probably closer to 50 hours a week with the 21 hours at school.

227
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They think I was nuts doing that, but that's just how we were raised.

228
00:14:27,017 --> 00:14:27,737
I didn't know any other way.

229
00:14:29,243 --> 00:14:31,983
Yeah, it was just, you know, times are different, you know. And what was your

230
00:14:31,983 --> 00:14:34,263
major? Business. Business.

231
00:14:35,603 --> 00:14:38,183
Specifically for? General. For this? You know, no.

232
00:14:39,623 --> 00:14:44,823
This is, y'all are probably going to laugh at me. But the reason why I picked business, my poor mama.

233
00:14:44,923 --> 00:14:47,703
My poor mama was a English teacher for many, many years.

234
00:14:48,343 --> 00:14:51,383
And she used to try to help me with my English in high school and all.

235
00:14:51,503 --> 00:14:55,343
And I just never could get it too good. I was really bad in English.

236
00:14:55,443 --> 00:14:56,523
And that's how I picked my major.

237
00:14:57,303 --> 00:15:00,723
That's how I picked my major. The one, it had the fewest Englishes.

238
00:15:02,543 --> 00:15:08,363
I'll BS you not. I'll BS you not. It had the fewest Englishes of all the curriculums

239
00:15:08,363 --> 00:15:11,303
that I was somewhat interested in. I wonder if they still get asked that question.

240
00:15:11,763 --> 00:15:15,483
That's the only reason. Well, back then you could see what classes you had to

241
00:15:15,483 --> 00:15:18,063
take. I guess they still do that now in each curriculum.

242
00:15:18,303 --> 00:15:21,303
So yeah, there was a handbook, but now I'm sure it's on a computer,

243
00:15:21,443 --> 00:15:24,363
but I went through the handbook and I'm telling you, I searched.

244
00:15:24,483 --> 00:15:28,143
I found all of them They had the fewest Englishes and business was the only

245
00:15:28,143 --> 00:15:29,983
one that I felt a little bit interested in. So I'm like, well,

246
00:15:30,063 --> 00:15:30,703
I'm going to try this one.

247
00:15:31,203 --> 00:15:35,203
But that being said, I'd learned, I made up my mind I was going to get a degree

248
00:15:35,203 --> 00:15:38,443
because my oldest brother, Biff, brilliant, went to school.

249
00:15:39,263 --> 00:15:44,083
My sister, Nancy, same thing, went to college. And both of them were within

250
00:15:44,083 --> 00:15:46,703
one or two semesters of finishing and dropped out.

251
00:15:47,603 --> 00:15:51,423
So I made up my mind I was going to get a degree. I didn't care what it was

252
00:15:51,423 --> 00:15:56,563
in. You know, so that's why, you know, one of the reasons why I picked that

253
00:15:56,563 --> 00:15:58,863
one. I just, I wanted to make sure I got the degree, you know.

254
00:15:59,363 --> 00:16:03,643
Harvard on the body. I did make it. And of course, I did have one of my Englishes

255
00:16:03,643 --> 00:16:05,823
I squeaked by and I made a D.

256
00:16:07,063 --> 00:16:10,463
Good. You tried. Yes. Oh, absolutely.

257
00:16:11,443 --> 00:16:15,203
So Nichols is known for business school. Yeah. You know why it's called Harvard

258
00:16:15,203 --> 00:16:17,043
on the body? Tell me. Do you know? No.

259
00:16:17,523 --> 00:16:22,483
So the same Harvard Business School is accredited by the same accreditation,

260
00:16:22,583 --> 00:16:24,443
whatever, that Nichols is.

261
00:16:24,703 --> 00:16:27,423
Okay. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, that's why. So, I mean, it's,

262
00:16:27,423 --> 00:16:32,063
I don't know if it's true, but supposedly it's equivalent to their degree.

263
00:16:32,343 --> 00:16:35,783
You know, of course, people don't know that, but I mean, if it's accredited

264
00:16:35,783 --> 00:16:38,283
by the same accreditation counselor or however they do that stuff.

265
00:16:38,463 --> 00:16:44,223
So going through it, having been through it, what did it not prepare you for?

266
00:16:45,303 --> 00:16:48,323
What's the course you would add to a Nichols business degree?

267
00:16:49,343 --> 00:16:54,743
You know, I'd like, I had one professor that I, and actually it might've been an elective I took.

268
00:16:54,903 --> 00:16:57,943
I don't remember if it was an elective or if I had to take it, it was a night class.

269
00:16:58,043 --> 00:17:02,083
Had a guy from, the instructor was from Baton Rouge. He'd come in once a week to teach this.

270
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It was on real estate and he was a businessman and he just did this on the side.

271
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Best instructor I ever had. I wished that perhaps some of these.

272
00:17:13,436 --> 00:17:17,296
Instructors had some business back, you know, actual, because you just,

273
00:17:17,476 --> 00:17:22,396
you could teach it from a book, but man, until you live it, you know what I mean?

274
00:17:22,436 --> 00:17:25,096
And it costs your pocket, especially if you're an entrepreneur a little bit,

275
00:17:25,176 --> 00:17:29,056
you know, if you make a mistake, it costs you. The decision-making part of it. Yeah.

276
00:17:29,336 --> 00:17:32,216
And you know, you can't teach that probably. You can't teach it.

277
00:17:32,336 --> 00:17:35,216
I think it's ingrained. Some people are more risky, you know,

278
00:17:35,216 --> 00:17:36,276
just take more risks than others.

279
00:17:36,556 --> 00:17:40,796
But being a business or entrepreneur, it's risky and you got to be willing to

280
00:17:40,796 --> 00:17:42,376
take them. Some people are not, some are.

281
00:17:42,556 --> 00:17:45,736
So, So I don't think you can teach that, you know, for whatever reason,

282
00:17:45,836 --> 00:17:49,016
you know, and I've, I've owned several businesses over the years,

283
00:17:49,096 --> 00:17:51,436
you know, different, I dabbled in several different things, but.

284
00:17:51,656 --> 00:17:53,136
You remember the name of that professor?

285
00:17:54,536 --> 00:17:57,816
I cannot, I cannot. He was good though, man.

286
00:17:57,996 --> 00:18:02,316
He didn't just teach real estate, you know, he taught, he taught real life,

287
00:18:02,416 --> 00:18:05,436
you know, he had some really good examples.

288
00:18:05,676 --> 00:18:07,716
Oh yeah, you're going to buy it for this, but what about this cost?

289
00:18:07,796 --> 00:18:10,936
That cost, this cost, you know, and that's, that's little things that you don't

290
00:18:10,936 --> 00:18:12,016
think And for him, that was fun.

291
00:18:12,716 --> 00:18:17,596
Yeah, I think he enjoyed that class. I know I did. That really caught my attention on that class.

292
00:18:17,676 --> 00:18:21,556
And that's why I ended up doing some real estate things in my entrepreneurial

293
00:18:21,556 --> 00:18:25,056
life, I guess, if you want to call it that. that one of the first things he

294
00:18:25,056 --> 00:18:26,596
said in class really caught my attention.

295
00:18:26,796 --> 00:18:31,136
He said, he said, let me see if I can word this right.

296
00:18:31,196 --> 00:18:36,896
The number one investment that you can make in the whole country,

297
00:18:37,376 --> 00:18:41,596
if you take all other investments combined and wherever you want to put your

298
00:18:41,596 --> 00:18:43,616
money, whatever, business, whatever you want to be in,

299
00:18:44,296 --> 00:18:49,876
he says, real estate investment is combined, beats them all.

300
00:18:50,276 --> 00:18:54,396
Like if you put them all together, brother, your investment return on it is bigger than any of them.

301
00:18:55,336 --> 00:18:57,816
I'm not saying it right. I can't remember exactly how you said it,

302
00:18:57,856 --> 00:19:01,056
but it really caught my attention. It really, it was, yeah.

303
00:19:01,596 --> 00:19:04,836
So that's why I always wanted to own land or buy land, you know,

304
00:19:04,836 --> 00:19:06,896
real estate. It is risky.

305
00:19:07,876 --> 00:19:11,056
Well, yeah, but I mean, a stock market scares me to death, you know?

306
00:19:11,116 --> 00:19:14,276
You can do it with a high or a low degree of risk.

307
00:19:14,756 --> 00:19:17,456
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. You got to do your homework. You got to do your homework.

308
00:19:17,516 --> 00:19:20,756
And it's a long term. I've learned that, unfortunately. I've made errors with it.

309
00:19:21,156 --> 00:19:24,536
I've bought stuff and got rid of it too soon.

310
00:19:24,676 --> 00:19:29,156
I was young and wanting to make money fast, but real estate is not that.

311
00:19:29,336 --> 00:19:33,136
It's usually, you got to buy it and wait time.

312
00:19:33,916 --> 00:19:38,616
Time pays off in real estate and be patient, very patient. What do you think

313
00:19:38,616 --> 00:19:41,416
is happening to Thibodeau in terms of real estate?

314
00:19:41,736 --> 00:19:45,816
Man, I'm out the loop on that now. I used to really, really, I mean, I was big.

315
00:19:45,976 --> 00:19:49,396
I used to love, you know, keeping track of all that stuff, housing and just

316
00:19:49,396 --> 00:19:52,576
anything went for sale, I'd research it and look at it and, you know,

317
00:19:52,576 --> 00:19:54,256
seeing if it's a good deal, blah, blah, blah. But.

318
00:19:55,396 --> 00:19:58,996
I'm out of the loop on it. Now, what I do look at still a little bit is,

319
00:19:59,036 --> 00:20:02,596
so I've got some property in Mississippi, you know, woodland,

320
00:20:02,776 --> 00:20:06,536
you know, hunting land and stuff, but trees, you know, I didn't realize when

321
00:20:06,536 --> 00:20:08,516
I bought it, the first piece I bought 12,

322
00:20:09,296 --> 00:20:11,796
15 years ago, how good of an investment it is.

323
00:20:11,936 --> 00:20:15,936
And so I keep track of that a little bit in my area where I'm at up in Mississippi,

324
00:20:16,036 --> 00:20:19,056
just whenever stuff goes for sale, I'll check it out just to keep track of,

325
00:20:19,636 --> 00:20:21,796
get an idea what mine's worth and, you know.

326
00:20:21,896 --> 00:20:26,276
But yeah, timber's a good investment, man. It's a slow, it's a long-term,

327
00:20:26,376 --> 00:20:29,076
very long-term, but it's a good investment, not a bad investment.

328
00:20:29,876 --> 00:20:36,256
All right. Speaking of taking risks, how old were you when you made some beef

329
00:20:36,256 --> 00:20:40,176
jerky for a guy, for a salesman, sort of behind Pawpaw's back?

330
00:20:40,476 --> 00:20:44,036
Maybe he was on vacation. Yeah. And you made a guy some beef jerky,

331
00:20:44,116 --> 00:20:47,636
and he loved it, and he came back for more, and he came back for more,

332
00:20:47,676 --> 00:20:48,316
and he came back for more.

333
00:20:49,916 --> 00:20:53,176
What happened when Pawpaw left for vacation? what

334
00:20:53,176 --> 00:20:56,516
yeah why'd you take the risk so i

335
00:20:56,516 --> 00:20:59,216
had been making it sporadically i was we i played a

336
00:20:59,216 --> 00:21:01,856
lot of softball adult softball on weekends with my buddies and all we had

337
00:21:01,856 --> 00:21:05,556
pretty good teams over the years and i'm pretty sure i was still in college

338
00:21:05,556 --> 00:21:10,376
when when uh and he man he was just one of those customers mr uh mr chick bro

339
00:21:10,376 --> 00:21:15,376
god rest his soul great great loved him to death his son meanie is still with

340
00:21:15,376 --> 00:21:18,236
us thank goodness he's he's not he's not that old he's a little older than me

341
00:21:18,236 --> 00:21:20,956
He's a good guy. I mean, he's a chip off the old block, you know.

342
00:21:21,496 --> 00:21:25,876
But yeah, Mr. Chick, he was just, he was an all-field salesman more or less.

343
00:21:26,156 --> 00:21:30,416
And just one of those people you couldn't tell, he just wouldn't take no for an answer.

344
00:21:32,036 --> 00:21:35,996
But he was a good customer too. He bought a lot of smoked sausage.

345
00:21:36,096 --> 00:21:40,136
He did a lot of cooking for his company that he worked for. And they did a lot

346
00:21:40,136 --> 00:21:41,156
of, he did a lot of entertaining.

347
00:21:41,416 --> 00:21:44,896
So he would do a, I mean, he'd come get, it wasn't nothing to come get 100,

348
00:21:44,956 --> 00:21:46,176
150 pounds of smoked sausage.

349
00:21:47,416 --> 00:21:50,336
And jambalaya and God knows what all he did with it. Andouille,

350
00:21:50,356 --> 00:21:53,736
he'd buy a lot of that. Fresh sausage, stuff like that, barbecuing and all.

351
00:21:54,636 --> 00:21:56,976
But yeah, he was a good cuss. Daddy knew him well.

352
00:21:58,637 --> 00:22:01,957
Like I said, I knew daddy liked him. That helped a lot for me starting to make it.

353
00:22:03,837 --> 00:22:10,717
They had a good relationship. So yeah, daddy's on vacation. He's- Grand now. Nope.

354
00:22:11,777 --> 00:22:15,937
Every so often, him and mom, they had a group of friends that they would go with to Las Vegas.

355
00:22:16,577 --> 00:22:19,897
Okay. And of all times a year, he did this. This is the first time he probably

356
00:22:19,897 --> 00:22:22,357
ever did this because it's a busy time of year. It was for Thanksgiving,

357
00:22:22,617 --> 00:22:23,377
the week of Thanksgiving.

358
00:22:24,217 --> 00:22:28,097
And Mr. Chick was in there probably the Friday after Thanksgiving.

359
00:22:28,637 --> 00:22:30,797
Might've been the Wednesday. I think it was a Friday afternoon.

360
00:22:30,877 --> 00:22:35,917
I was, I'd made some for my buddies for the weekend and he had tasted it a couple of times before.

361
00:22:36,057 --> 00:22:38,377
And man, when it comes out the smokehouse in the afternoons,

362
00:22:38,397 --> 00:22:41,757
you could smell it and he'd, you know, and he was, like I said,

363
00:22:41,817 --> 00:22:43,177
he was like family almost, you know?

364
00:22:43,577 --> 00:22:48,797
So at this point you already had what you would consider is the way you wanted

365
00:22:48,797 --> 00:22:52,697
it when this happened? Or were you still playing around?

366
00:22:53,417 --> 00:22:55,877
I mean, I was, yeah, I was making it the same way we're pretty much making it

367
00:22:55,877 --> 00:22:58,157
now. Now, a little different, different cuts of meat, you know, different.

368
00:22:58,257 --> 00:23:00,577
But every time. I experimented with the different cuts of meat,

369
00:23:00,637 --> 00:23:04,497
which doesn't really matter that much, you know, unless you don't like chewing.

370
00:23:04,577 --> 00:23:07,877
It just depends. There were more tender pieces that I've used over the years.

371
00:23:08,237 --> 00:23:11,117
Seasoning was basically the same. Yeah. The same as what we do now.

372
00:23:11,337 --> 00:23:14,957
And it looked the same. Well, yeah, we did it different. So now we,

373
00:23:14,997 --> 00:23:18,517
I designed those sticks, by the way, with the nails that y'all use that I know y'all love.

374
00:23:19,397 --> 00:23:21,697
Trust me, y'all would love what y'all got now compared to what we used to do.

375
00:23:21,737 --> 00:23:25,897
Explain the stick. Explain the stick for someone who doesn't understand this.

376
00:23:26,317 --> 00:23:29,757
Well, do we want to give away that information? It's all over. Okay.

377
00:23:30,717 --> 00:23:34,857
It's all over. I was very, daddy was very secretive about everything he did.

378
00:23:34,917 --> 00:23:37,857
He did not want anybody. What if people come over from the Philippines and they

379
00:23:37,857 --> 00:23:39,517
want to see stuff like this? Yeah, I know.

380
00:23:40,197 --> 00:23:45,097
Yeah, no one can replicate it, so. But anyway, yeah, it's just basically stainless

381
00:23:45,097 --> 00:23:48,217
nails that I found at a boat shop that Bill's.

382
00:23:49,356 --> 00:23:53,696
Wooden boats, and you basically drill, you have to drill holes and angle on,

383
00:23:53,776 --> 00:23:57,756
aluminum angle on, and you got to get the right size bit where it's a press fit.

384
00:23:57,836 --> 00:24:00,336
Basically, you have to don't need to drive them into the hole.

385
00:24:00,916 --> 00:24:04,176
And I actually take them, and the nails are too long. I can't find short enough

386
00:24:04,176 --> 00:24:07,096
ones, so we actually cut them. It's a lot of work to make them.

387
00:24:07,176 --> 00:24:08,656
It takes a lot of work to make them.

388
00:24:09,176 --> 00:24:12,636
But once they're made, they've lasted for a long time. They last.

389
00:24:13,096 --> 00:24:16,996
But before that, so when I was making them, when Mr. Chick was doing it,

390
00:24:16,996 --> 00:24:20,296
But we had, have you ever seen the old smoke rails we use?

391
00:24:20,396 --> 00:24:23,936
They're like, if you look at them from the end, they're like a pyramid kind

392
00:24:23,936 --> 00:24:25,376
of sorta, what you would call that.

393
00:24:25,496 --> 00:24:28,756
And flares at the bottom, like a bell. They call it like a bell, a bell.

394
00:24:28,976 --> 00:24:31,136
No, not those. No. No, that's after.

395
00:24:31,756 --> 00:24:35,796
It's like a star. It's a, they're straight. A straight piece of angle on it.

396
00:24:35,816 --> 00:24:37,996
Yeah, like this. And it kicks out. It's not really an angle on it.

397
00:24:38,096 --> 00:24:40,956
It's, if you had three pieces, was that 33 degrees each?

398
00:24:41,016 --> 00:24:46,636
Okay. So basically an upright one and then two that go out at the bottom. Okay.

399
00:24:46,936 --> 00:24:50,136
So that's what we were smoking our sausage on. And I can't believe we don't

400
00:24:50,136 --> 00:24:51,816
still have some of those sticks hanging around here somewhere.

401
00:24:52,276 --> 00:24:56,276
But so yeah, we just hung the meat over that. So the meat that was underneath

402
00:24:56,276 --> 00:24:58,536
the stick really didn't get that dark, pretty color.

403
00:24:58,616 --> 00:25:02,136
It stayed kind of pink looking, which wasn't appetizing looking,

404
00:25:02,276 --> 00:25:05,776
but it still, it didn't affect the taste at all. So that's the first,

405
00:25:05,876 --> 00:25:08,716
that's how we made it back then for him. And that's how I was making it for myself.

406
00:25:09,436 --> 00:25:13,376
So yeah, he comes in and he's like, man, Don, he says, y'all got to make me some of this.

407
00:25:13,896 --> 00:25:17,996
He says, look, he says, I'm going to come back Monday, Monday afternoon,

408
00:25:18,176 --> 00:25:20,476
and I want you to make me 20 pounds.

409
00:25:21,336 --> 00:25:24,996
So I'm like, man, that's a chick. I was like, Daddy don't want to make this.

410
00:25:25,156 --> 00:25:26,996
You know, Daddy was getting older. He was getting ready to retire.

411
00:25:27,076 --> 00:25:29,476
And you asked him. He's getting closer to retirement. You already asked him, correct?

412
00:25:29,736 --> 00:25:33,276
No, no, I never asked Dad. Okay. No, no. He just was reading his mind.

413
00:25:34,136 --> 00:25:38,876
Mr. Chick may have, may have kind of talked to him about it a little bit. He may have.

414
00:25:39,316 --> 00:25:42,516
Mr. Chick may have talked to daddy about it. And daddy, I think, turned him down maybe.

415
00:25:43,156 --> 00:25:46,276
So yeah, he asked me to do it. I'm like, man, I told him, I tried to tell him no.

416
00:25:48,236 --> 00:25:52,016
But he, like I said, he just, he wouldn't take no for an answer.

417
00:25:52,096 --> 00:25:53,996
And he was, man, look, he was a good guy. I love Chick.

418
00:25:54,116 --> 00:25:56,536
He was a great guy. And so anyway, I told him, I said, look.

419
00:25:57,530 --> 00:25:59,950
So he said, man, look, Donald, don't worry about it. He said,

420
00:25:59,990 --> 00:26:01,070
I'm going to talk to your daddy.

421
00:26:01,210 --> 00:26:04,070
You don't worry about your daddy. I'm on that. And that's how he convinced me.

422
00:26:04,070 --> 00:26:06,270
I'm like, all right, you got me. True salesman. I'm young and dumb.

423
00:26:08,610 --> 00:26:11,570
So we come in Monday morning. Daddy's coming back like the Sunday,

424
00:26:11,730 --> 00:26:13,070
I think. So he's going to be at work Monday.

425
00:26:13,770 --> 00:26:17,050
So Monday morning, and you got to get in there early. And we smoke sausage Monday

426
00:26:17,050 --> 00:26:18,610
mornings for sure, every Monday.

427
00:26:18,770 --> 00:26:22,270
And back then, it was the summer months. I knew I was going to have room.

428
00:26:22,450 --> 00:26:24,830
Usually in the summer, we don't smoke quite as much. I knew we were going to

429
00:26:24,830 --> 00:26:25,610
have room to get in there.

430
00:26:25,690 --> 00:26:29,810
So what I did, I just took some regular round steaks with the bone in and they

431
00:26:29,810 --> 00:26:31,910
were $1.90 a pound at the time. I can remember that.

432
00:26:31,990 --> 00:26:35,690
And I sliced them and raw weight 20 pounds is what he was buying.

433
00:26:36,150 --> 00:26:40,670
So I weighed up 20 pounds and got a ticket and I didn't charge him nothing to

434
00:26:40,670 --> 00:26:43,670
season it and smoke it and all that stuff because I knew it lost a lot of weight.

435
00:26:43,750 --> 00:26:46,070
So I figured we're coming out all right. We're selling from that much anyway

436
00:26:46,070 --> 00:26:48,630
and I got to smoke anyway. It's not costing me anything extra really.

437
00:26:49,170 --> 00:26:52,870
So yeah. So anyway, I do that. I come in that morning and I slice them and I put them in there.

438
00:26:53,810 --> 00:26:58,590
And Daddy, I don't know if Mr. Cleave gave Daddy the rundown of what was going

439
00:26:58,590 --> 00:27:01,090
on behind my, not behind my back.

440
00:27:01,250 --> 00:27:03,210
You know, Mr. Cleave never did nothing behind your back, but he might have kind

441
00:27:03,210 --> 00:27:05,530
of let Daddy know what was happening because it was a lot more.

442
00:27:05,670 --> 00:27:09,350
You know, I only did a few pieces, you know, usually when I did it for myself. I never did that much.

443
00:27:09,890 --> 00:27:12,870
So I guess maybe he just figured out something's going on. But yeah,

444
00:27:12,910 --> 00:27:14,430
he didn't say a word to me all day.

445
00:27:15,430 --> 00:27:18,590
I mean, not nothing. Because he knew. Nothing.

446
00:27:19,230 --> 00:27:24,050
He knew what had started. We take it in, and I think while we're taking it in,

447
00:27:24,070 --> 00:27:27,370
Chick walks in the door, and as soon as he walks in the door,

448
00:27:28,050 --> 00:27:29,690
Daddy's about a cooler right here.

449
00:27:29,930 --> 00:27:33,690
He's like, you. He points at him, and he does like this with his finger.

450
00:27:34,330 --> 00:27:38,750
Come see. Chick does that to Pawpaw, correct? No, Daddy does that. Pawpaw did it. Yeah.

451
00:27:40,390 --> 00:27:43,350
So they'd go off on the side and they'd get to talking quiet.

452
00:27:43,450 --> 00:27:44,450
I couldn't hear the conversation.

453
00:27:45,270 --> 00:27:49,150
But by the time it was all over with, old Chick, he knew how to talk and he

454
00:27:49,150 --> 00:27:50,710
knew how to not take no for an answer.

455
00:27:50,870 --> 00:27:54,650
So daddy agreed we'd make every Monday and every Wednesday. That's what we did.

456
00:27:55,330 --> 00:27:59,210
Monday afternoon, he picked up those 20 pounds. And then Wednesday afternoons, he picked up 20.

457
00:27:59,270 --> 00:28:02,330
And we'd take it and we'd put about three or four pieces in a little piece of

458
00:28:02,330 --> 00:28:05,450
paper and we'd wrap them. So he'd end up with, I don't know, maybe 20 packs.

459
00:28:06,270 --> 00:28:09,870
And he's hitting the road. Yeah, he's going, he's going. And daddy tells him,

460
00:28:09,890 --> 00:28:10,670
look, Chick. And he's sweet talking.

461
00:28:10,770 --> 00:28:13,210
Yeah, well, daddy told him. He said, look, he said, I'm going to make it for

462
00:28:13,210 --> 00:28:16,110
you, but you cannot tell anybody where you're getting it from.

463
00:28:16,330 --> 00:28:18,550
In fact, he said, you tell people you're making it yourself.

464
00:28:19,130 --> 00:28:22,250
That's what he told Chick. Okay. He told him, you tell people you're making it yourself.

465
00:28:22,850 --> 00:28:26,450
So that went on, I guess, about six months. But I mean, when we took it out

466
00:28:26,450 --> 00:28:29,070
in the evenings, man, that stuff smells good. What year was this?

467
00:28:29,930 --> 00:28:32,670
My best guess, like I said, I'm pretty sure I was still in college.

468
00:28:32,690 --> 00:28:36,910
So probably early 90s, 93-ish, give or take a year.

469
00:28:37,550 --> 00:28:41,230
Best guess. Maybe a little later than that because daddy, might have been a

470
00:28:41,230 --> 00:28:43,710
little bit later because daddy wasn't here long when we were making it.

471
00:28:44,150 --> 00:28:48,010
He wasn't here that long. So it might have been mid, late 90s.

472
00:28:48,050 --> 00:28:50,990
Because me and John bought out, I think, 91. In 90 or 91.

473
00:28:51,270 --> 00:28:53,450
Okay. Yeah, I think 91 was our first year, I think.

474
00:28:54,659 --> 00:28:59,699
So Mr. Chick's hitting the road with it, sweet-talking his clients or oil field

475
00:28:59,699 --> 00:29:02,199
customers. Yeah, that's what he's doing. He's getting in the door with it. He's cutting the line.

476
00:29:02,539 --> 00:29:05,899
He's cutting the line. Nice. They still do it today. Absolutely.

477
00:29:06,199 --> 00:29:07,479
Absolutely. They know it works.

478
00:29:07,919 --> 00:29:10,619
And that's funny. That's what a turkey cheese, a lot of them use,

479
00:29:10,679 --> 00:29:14,919
and they use that for the secretaries, the boss's secretary that gets them in

480
00:29:14,919 --> 00:29:16,319
with her because she's going to get him.

481
00:29:16,599 --> 00:29:19,179
Yep. She's really the one that gets them in there. You got to flash it.

482
00:29:19,179 --> 00:29:24,599
But I heard a story of a truck driver stacked up in line at a delivery.

483
00:29:24,659 --> 00:29:29,199
He was running late, you know, whatever, two hours late. And there's five trucks ahead of him.

484
00:29:30,539 --> 00:29:34,879
And he hung that package out the window. He hung the white butcher paper out the window.

485
00:29:35,079 --> 00:29:38,699
And the guy at the gate seen it and flagged him around all the other trucks.

486
00:29:39,979 --> 00:29:44,379
Nice. So it's still. Well, I've had some happenings like that. Still sweet talks.

487
00:29:45,459 --> 00:29:49,799
So what about, all right, you're making it for Chick. and then how'd that evolve

488
00:29:49,799 --> 00:29:54,959
to someone else walked in and said, I want some jerky.

489
00:29:54,979 --> 00:29:57,199
Well, in the evenings when we took it out, it smells.

490
00:29:57,519 --> 00:30:00,079
I mean, this place just smells so good.

491
00:30:00,719 --> 00:30:04,239
And so I would, you know, we were a small business.

492
00:30:04,499 --> 00:30:06,939
It wasn't but four of us behind the counter, I think at the time,

493
00:30:06,979 --> 00:30:10,019
maybe five at the most that worked here in the whole place.

494
00:30:10,179 --> 00:30:13,659
And from there, like, you know, we knew our customers.

495
00:30:13,779 --> 00:30:15,959
We knew every one of them just about that walked in. So we did it.

496
00:30:16,019 --> 00:30:18,259
Man, what is that? What is that? So we'd give them a little taste, you know, music.

497
00:30:18,419 --> 00:30:22,839
Cut a little piece off, let them taste it. Oh, how much I'll sell it for? Oh, we don't sell that.

498
00:30:24,859 --> 00:30:28,759
So, and that's pretty much what happened for, you know, six months or so,

499
00:30:28,819 --> 00:30:32,499
you know, occasionally we'd give somebody a piece and they kept asking for it, kept asking for it.

500
00:30:32,519 --> 00:30:35,759
So eventually we started making maybe about five extra pounds,

501
00:30:35,899 --> 00:30:41,119
you know, and then it became 10 extra pounds and then 20 extra pounds.

502
00:30:41,139 --> 00:30:43,699
And then it just kept growing.

503
00:30:45,026 --> 00:30:51,046
And you remember the first year, when was the first year you knew it was something?

504
00:30:51,706 --> 00:30:53,766
You knew you had something?

505
00:30:54,466 --> 00:30:57,226
I think from the beginning, I kind of knew because all the ballplayers,

506
00:30:57,226 --> 00:31:01,466
everybody at 80 loved it. I never met a person that didn't like it for the first quite a few years.

507
00:31:01,626 --> 00:31:05,306
You know, I never did this.

508
00:31:06,166 --> 00:31:09,706
It's hard to explain. I knew what I wanted to do when I was six years old.

509
00:31:09,826 --> 00:31:12,186
I mean, how many six-year-olds really know what they want to do for a living?

510
00:31:12,286 --> 00:31:15,186
I knew I wanted to work. I wanted this place so bad when I was six years old.

511
00:31:15,226 --> 00:31:17,606
I used to cry about it because I never thought I did. I had two older brothers.

512
00:31:18,126 --> 00:31:21,186
But I always, mostly because of Cleveland Raymond, I think. You know,

513
00:31:21,206 --> 00:31:23,526
I just, I loved coming here. I absolutely love this place.

514
00:31:24,006 --> 00:31:26,766
So I never did anything. I never thought of things that way.

515
00:31:26,946 --> 00:31:30,386
I just, I just wanted to put out, let's put it this way.

516
00:31:31,026 --> 00:31:35,486
Anybody out there that's listening, when you eat a really good steak or seafood,

517
00:31:35,706 --> 00:31:38,006
any kind of good food, what do you do?

518
00:31:38,606 --> 00:31:41,706
Pretty much every single human on the planet, when they eat something that they

519
00:31:41,706 --> 00:31:44,566
really like, they smile, they're happy.

520
00:31:45,046 --> 00:31:49,306
And that's what I loved about what I did all my life, providing the best stuff

521
00:31:49,306 --> 00:31:51,546
I could do, or trying to anyway.

522
00:31:52,066 --> 00:31:57,746
And yeah, seeing that smile on people's face. And that's why I did what I did all my life pretty much.

523
00:31:57,886 --> 00:32:01,386
It was never about the money, never. And I mean, granted the money did come,

524
00:32:01,506 --> 00:32:03,746
but I would have done it anyway, I think.

525
00:32:03,826 --> 00:32:07,806
Because, I mean, I tell people and they think I'm nuts, but I couldn't wait.

526
00:32:07,886 --> 00:32:11,126
When my eyes opened up in the morning, I couldn't wait. As soon as my feet hit

527
00:32:11,126 --> 00:32:12,986
the floor, I was out of the house within 10 minutes.

528
00:32:13,266 --> 00:32:16,726
I couldn't wait to come to work. I loved what I did. Loved what I did all my life.

529
00:32:17,506 --> 00:32:21,126
So anyway, yep, that's pretty much how the jerky got started.

530
00:32:21,346 --> 00:32:24,386
And then from there, we slowly evolved with different cuts of meat we've tried

531
00:32:24,386 --> 00:32:26,726
over the years and different sticks.

532
00:32:27,406 --> 00:32:31,446
The sticks we used not long when we started kind of growing a little bit at

533
00:32:31,446 --> 00:32:36,086
the beginning. And we did do some smoking of wood sticks back then at times when we had to overflow.

534
00:32:36,306 --> 00:32:39,826
So, yeah, we ended up taking wood sticks, one by two, I think it was.

535
00:32:40,486 --> 00:32:44,566
And we took just regular old galvanized nails. And this is probably back in

536
00:32:44,566 --> 00:32:47,346
the early 90s, mid 90s, I guess.

537
00:32:47,886 --> 00:32:51,766
We drove it in at an angle and then we'd bend them like a hook kind of.

538
00:32:52,046 --> 00:32:55,286
So, yeah. And that worked. Those worked good. They just, they didn't,

539
00:32:55,286 --> 00:32:58,986
they were hard after you take the jerky off to clean them. They didn't clean real good.

540
00:32:59,086 --> 00:33:02,306
Whereas the ones we got now clean really good. but it's stainless and aluminum,

541
00:33:02,506 --> 00:33:05,066
you know? There's a lot to it. But we used those for quite a while.

542
00:33:05,826 --> 00:33:10,686
There's a lot to it. What was it like working, let's say the,

543
00:33:10,946 --> 00:33:16,966
I don't know, 10 years in, 10 years in, Papa's still there, correct?

544
00:33:17,666 --> 00:33:20,666
Oh, after, when I started in high school? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. High school was

545
00:33:20,666 --> 00:33:24,406
80, so yeah, yeah. It was towards the end, I mean, Papa was fixing to leave. What was that like?

546
00:33:24,686 --> 00:33:28,666
So kind of what was- The transition, you mean? Yeah, what was his role here?

547
00:33:30,155 --> 00:33:32,955
And what were y'all roles? Daddy was here most of the time.

548
00:33:33,395 --> 00:33:37,635
His last year, year and a half maybe, he started playing golf a little bit.

549
00:33:38,035 --> 00:33:40,475
So he was here a little bit less, not a lot.

550
00:33:41,475 --> 00:33:45,315
But he was getting, he was ready. He was ready to get out. He was ready to get

551
00:33:45,315 --> 00:33:46,095
out. Was he talking about it?

552
00:33:46,555 --> 00:33:51,675
Not really. Not really talking about it. But, you know, he was getting tired of it.

553
00:33:51,715 --> 00:33:54,715
He was getting old, you know. When you get old, you don't feel like working that hard, you know.

554
00:33:55,635 --> 00:33:58,275
Because there's no doubt. I ain't got to tell you this. This is hard work.

555
00:33:58,515 --> 00:34:01,135
You know, what we do. We're not doing with a whole lot of machines.

556
00:34:01,315 --> 00:34:04,135
We're doing a lot of it by hand. Oh the way he did it You know wait grandpa

557
00:34:04,135 --> 00:34:09,135
did people people realize that there's a lot of physical work to it And why not about hours?

558
00:34:09,275 --> 00:34:13,235
Why not change it up and and take the easy way out and make the boudin with

559
00:34:13,235 --> 00:34:18,715
no bones in it and use garlic powder Instead of garlic and green onions dry

560
00:34:18,715 --> 00:34:20,995
green onions. Well, why not do all that Shane?

561
00:34:21,135 --> 00:34:23,055
You tell me does it taste the same?

562
00:34:23,415 --> 00:34:27,495
I know I want to hear I want to hear it out your mouth what I just told you

563
00:34:27,495 --> 00:34:30,135
I said, I want to make the best possible. You don't smile.

564
00:34:30,635 --> 00:34:33,915
Boudin is not a fancy product. You don't find it in fancy restaurants.

565
00:34:34,055 --> 00:34:38,935
But I want to try to make the best boudin I can make or whatever it is that I'm cooking that day.

566
00:34:39,315 --> 00:34:42,835
And that's something, I mean, most of the time when I was hands-on with anything

567
00:34:42,835 --> 00:34:45,975
we were cooking or making, you know, vast majority of times.

568
00:34:47,075 --> 00:34:51,315
So, but yeah, that's why. I mean, it makes a difference. I don't care what anybody says.

569
00:34:51,535 --> 00:34:54,975
And if it doesn't make a difference, and not everybody's taste buds are perhaps

570
00:34:54,975 --> 00:34:56,975
delicate as mine. But you know,

571
00:34:56,975 --> 00:34:59,715
I know the difference and that's all that that's all that matters to me.

572
00:34:59,755 --> 00:35:03,075
Mm-hmm, you know, but what stops what stops you from?

573
00:35:03,655 --> 00:35:09,735
What's the difference between you and the guy that he knows if he just uses,

574
00:35:10,575 --> 00:35:12,375
Garlic powder instead of garlic.

575
00:35:12,695 --> 00:35:19,295
He could make a dollar more per pound. What what's the difference between those two guys? I,

576
00:35:20,370 --> 00:35:26,170
That's a good question because I would, well, it comes back to what I just told

577
00:35:26,170 --> 00:35:27,130
you. I never did it for the money.

578
00:35:27,750 --> 00:35:31,530
I guess it's the money, you know, greed maybe. I don't know what you want to

579
00:35:31,530 --> 00:35:34,510
call it, but best, I don't know. I guess that's it.

580
00:35:34,730 --> 00:35:38,430
Or laziness maybe because it takes a lot of work. And look, for many,

581
00:35:38,510 --> 00:35:39,770
many years, we peeled our own garlic.

582
00:35:40,330 --> 00:35:44,350
We peeled it and chopped it by hand for many, many years. Up until,

583
00:35:44,510 --> 00:35:47,630
I don't know, maybe, what, 20 years ago, maybe we could buy it where it was

584
00:35:47,630 --> 00:35:48,890
already peeled. That's been nice.

585
00:35:49,410 --> 00:35:52,230
But yeah, we don't even get it already minced anymore.

586
00:35:52,890 --> 00:35:57,630
I mean, we never did it that way. We always get it whole and we do it by hand ourselves.

587
00:35:58,850 --> 00:36:01,910
This is a great question. This is probably the best question I have.

588
00:36:01,950 --> 00:36:04,090
And it doesn't come from me. It comes from someone else. Okay.

589
00:36:04,570 --> 00:36:08,090
That works here and is related to you. Okay. They want to know.

590
00:36:08,590 --> 00:36:12,750
Why does Brody want to do that? It's actually not Brody. It's actually Jeff. Jeff. Okay.

591
00:36:12,850 --> 00:36:16,290
Oh, this is going to be good. I love Jeff. I told him I wouldn't say who it

592
00:36:16,290 --> 00:36:18,730
was. Well, he's a chip off of the old block over there.

593
00:36:18,890 --> 00:36:21,110
In Shreve over there.

594
00:36:21,450 --> 00:36:27,310
Jeff wants to know why do customers come in here and they stand across the counter

595
00:36:27,310 --> 00:36:31,510
and they say, I need a dollar worse-a something.

596
00:36:32,550 --> 00:36:35,550
What's a dollar worse-a? What's it mean? When did it start?

597
00:36:36,030 --> 00:36:39,330
Was that before you were here? Did you watch it happen? Oh, no,

598
00:36:39,330 --> 00:36:41,570
I didn't. No, that's been since it's opened.

599
00:36:41,990 --> 00:36:44,830
And people didn't have money. You got to realize, especially Daddy and Cleve

600
00:36:44,830 --> 00:36:47,550
when they were here, people didn't have no money back then. Meat was a luxury.

601
00:36:48,150 --> 00:36:51,550
Meat was a luxury back when they were growing up. Mr. Cleave didn't eat meat,

602
00:36:51,610 --> 00:36:55,530
but once a week. So it's a here's my budget for sausage. Yeah, I got a dollar.

603
00:36:55,730 --> 00:36:57,910
You better nail it or I'm out.

604
00:36:58,150 --> 00:37:01,910
And most of the time it was, most of the time, not always, but the majority

605
00:37:01,910 --> 00:37:05,370
of time was either with boudin or hog head cheese. Give me a dollar the worse of hog head cheese.

606
00:37:05,830 --> 00:37:10,090
Right. And, but that's just kind of, the worse is I guess, Johnson Ridge slang,

607
00:37:10,190 --> 00:37:12,490
you know, ain't nothing but a Johnson Ridge boy, so. Yeah.

608
00:37:13,930 --> 00:37:19,390
But yeah, I mean, that's just- We still have customers. Oh, we've sold millions

609
00:37:19,390 --> 00:37:23,810
of dollars worse across that counter. That worse is something.

610
00:37:24,190 --> 00:37:27,170
Yeah. I didn't realize they still ask for it that way. That's good.

611
00:37:27,290 --> 00:37:31,810
I like that. And one time I remember Papa actually went, this was when he was,

612
00:37:31,830 --> 00:37:33,810
I don't know, he's probably 95, 96.

613
00:37:34,330 --> 00:37:40,210
He actually went a little too far over the whatever it was, $1.50 worse, $1.75 worse.

614
00:37:40,650 --> 00:37:44,090
He went a little too far over and they told him it was too much.

615
00:37:44,090 --> 00:37:49,330
So he smiled at him broke broke a quarter of the piece off you know it's turkey

616
00:37:49,330 --> 00:37:52,830
cheese he broke a quarter of the piece off popped it in his mouth and then continued

617
00:37:52,830 --> 00:37:54,970
to wrap their the rest of their dollars worth.

618
00:37:56,532 --> 00:38:02,372
That's how this place is going to- Well, you know what people- It's going to

619
00:38:02,372 --> 00:38:05,712
be really- Maybe those people realize this, the ones that do the Wursa,

620
00:38:05,812 --> 00:38:10,232
I would say 80, 90% of the time,

621
00:38:10,972 --> 00:38:14,832
maybe every time, that dollar's Wursa is actually about a dollar and a quarter.

622
00:38:16,072 --> 00:38:20,852
It really, it's always, I never, ever went under, almost never. That's the trick, huh?

623
00:38:20,952 --> 00:38:24,092
Yeah, it was always over. I think that's why they do that, because they know

624
00:38:24,092 --> 00:38:27,112
they're getting a little more. You gotta ask for a little less than a dollar's worth. Yeah.

625
00:38:27,192 --> 00:38:30,332
I never, ever, I never did that to people.

626
00:38:30,452 --> 00:38:32,732
If it was a little over, they got, which most of the time it will.

627
00:38:32,832 --> 00:38:34,672
I want to make sure that, you know, they got their money's worth.

628
00:38:35,232 --> 00:38:38,112
But like I said, it was never about the money, you know, what's a quarter here,

629
00:38:38,232 --> 00:38:39,212
50 cents there, you know.

630
00:38:40,352 --> 00:38:47,172
So beef jerky goes from Mr. Chick ordering his first, what was his very first order?

631
00:38:47,252 --> 00:38:50,212
It was 20 pounds. 20 pounds of wet weight.

632
00:38:50,392 --> 00:38:53,052
Yeah. Wet weight, $1.90 a pound. Now what it came out to on the end.

633
00:38:53,232 --> 00:38:56,592
A third of that, maybe. Probably, yeah, probably about six bucks a pound.

634
00:38:56,712 --> 00:39:00,132
Okay. Probably. And that's not including any labor or anything else with it.

635
00:39:00,172 --> 00:39:03,672
But from there, we did start selling, I think, best I can remember.

636
00:39:03,812 --> 00:39:05,932
And they may have some customers who bought it for cheaper possibly.

637
00:39:05,972 --> 00:39:10,592
But I think we started at $8 a pound, I think.

638
00:39:10,972 --> 00:39:18,212
I think in my high school years, the lowest I remember was about $16 to $18 a pound.

639
00:39:18,432 --> 00:39:22,072
And we always get customers, they say, boy, I've been buying this stuff since

640
00:39:22,072 --> 00:39:23,892
it was $10 a pound. You know?

641
00:39:24,612 --> 00:39:27,412
And yeah, I remember back to about 16, 18.

642
00:39:27,812 --> 00:39:32,552
And mostly the first increases on the price was we were still kind of trying

643
00:39:32,552 --> 00:39:34,012
to figure out what cut of meat worked best.

644
00:39:34,772 --> 00:39:41,492
Just a combination of taste, texture, and price, you know, because I mean, it's jerky.

645
00:39:41,552 --> 00:39:43,712
You know, you don't want to use the most expensive cut of meat for it,

646
00:39:43,732 --> 00:39:45,512
but you want to use something good, you know.

647
00:39:45,912 --> 00:39:50,852
So that was probably why we ended up having to go up to that 10 or 12 mark when

648
00:39:50,852 --> 00:39:53,472
we first did, you know, because of the cut of meat we ended up going with.

649
00:39:53,472 --> 00:39:56,152
People don't know this Almost no one knows

650
00:39:56,152 --> 00:39:59,232
this But Our jerky Is It is

651
00:39:59,232 --> 00:40:03,572
known for being expensive It is People do Mention how expensive it is But they

652
00:40:03,572 --> 00:40:08,012
don't know that it's It's on average Eight to ten dollars Cheaper per pound

653
00:40:08,012 --> 00:40:12,012
Than Almost anything you find In a gas station Yeah They never figured that

654
00:40:12,012 --> 00:40:17,652
out But that's That's And it's not It's not something we We ever pushed No I've always,

655
00:40:18,212 --> 00:40:22,552
Questioned If we should or not And I guess I don't know yet Yeah But.

656
00:40:23,899 --> 00:40:27,959
You could do something like that on Facebook, you know, with media,

657
00:40:28,179 --> 00:40:29,439
with the social media you all have now.

658
00:40:29,499 --> 00:40:32,719
You could maybe just kind of show some examples, you know. But people don't

659
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:34,959
know that. Show them how much it is and then do the math.

660
00:40:35,039 --> 00:40:37,539
People don't do the math, that's all. Right. A lot of people aren't that good

661
00:40:37,539 --> 00:40:41,159
at math, but if you sit and do the math, you have the vast majority of them in the 40s probably.

662
00:40:41,259 --> 00:40:44,039
Right. They're getting those 2.7 ounce packs.

663
00:40:44,279 --> 00:40:47,219
They don't understand what's happening there. Yeah, yeah. We could easily say

664
00:40:47,219 --> 00:40:51,719
it's $4 a pack instead of $30 a pound and put whatever we want in the pack.

665
00:40:51,819 --> 00:40:52,319
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

666
00:40:53,219 --> 00:40:59,299
So, yeah, maybe that's something we ought to switch up one day and follow suit

667
00:40:59,299 --> 00:41:01,839
and do the packaging different.

668
00:41:01,919 --> 00:41:05,899
And maybe people will realize we're actually very underpriced for what you're

669
00:41:05,899 --> 00:41:07,099
getting. Yeah, it is. It is.

670
00:41:07,139 --> 00:41:10,799
And on top of all that, health-wise, it's probably the healthiest jerky you're

671
00:41:10,799 --> 00:41:12,939
going to buy because it doesn't have any nitrates or nitrites in it.

672
00:41:12,999 --> 00:41:14,319
Right. And that's super rare.

673
00:41:14,519 --> 00:41:17,879
Yeah. You can't find it. A lot of stuff in there is loaded with sugars.

674
00:41:17,959 --> 00:41:22,179
Yeah, I've noticed that. A lot of your breakfast sausages, every one of them has sugar in it now.

675
00:41:22,279 --> 00:41:25,519
I don't like sweet in a meat. You know, like bacon. Same thing with bacon.

676
00:41:25,699 --> 00:41:27,199
They're all sweet. I don't like that.

677
00:41:27,519 --> 00:41:29,819
But then they all, everything, everything. And that's another thing I'm really

678
00:41:29,819 --> 00:41:31,539
excited about is your bacon over there at the place.

679
00:41:31,819 --> 00:41:35,079
And you'll sell it here, I think. Brett's got that bacon down pat,

680
00:41:35,159 --> 00:41:36,559
man. Dude, I have played with that. I don't know if y'all know that,

681
00:41:36,639 --> 00:41:38,479
but I have played with that darn bacon over the years.

682
00:41:38,579 --> 00:41:42,159
I never could come out with something I liked. He's got it. I like what he makes.

683
00:41:42,199 --> 00:41:45,999
I've actually never been super interested in bacon until now.

684
00:41:47,539 --> 00:41:50,119
He's got a good product, man. And Brett came up with a good recipe.

685
00:41:50,319 --> 00:41:51,359
Bacon's always been whatever.

686
00:41:51,639 --> 00:41:55,939
And after a couple of times trying it, I'm kind of hooked on it.

687
00:41:55,999 --> 00:41:58,419
So we've been messing with it a lot. Well, I tell people about it,

688
00:41:58,459 --> 00:42:01,579
when you first bite it, for me, this is just my experience.

689
00:42:01,659 --> 00:42:04,259
And I think most people will experience this if they follow through with it.

690
00:42:04,619 --> 00:42:08,299
That first bite, it's good, but it's not like the best bacon you ever ate, honestly.

691
00:42:09,712 --> 00:42:12,532
But it's because it doesn't have the nitrite. So like regular bacon with the

692
00:42:12,532 --> 00:42:14,432
nitrite, man, that first bite, boy, it's good.

693
00:42:15,192 --> 00:42:17,632
If you really want to be a pig, you can eat five, six pieces.

694
00:42:17,952 --> 00:42:23,052
But by the time you get to that fourth, fifth, sixth piece, it deteriorates like it's not as good.

695
00:42:23,512 --> 00:42:27,392
I find hours when you get to that fourth or fifth piece, it just keeps getting better.

696
00:42:27,692 --> 00:42:30,492
Each bite. Each bite gets better and better. It's hard to explain.

697
00:42:30,752 --> 00:42:32,372
It stays with you until later. It's just good.

698
00:42:32,772 --> 00:42:36,192
Like I said, that first bite to me is just average. And then it just gets better

699
00:42:36,192 --> 00:42:38,632
and better with every bite. And wet age is in your mouth.

700
00:42:39,192 --> 00:42:42,972
That's a little drink break never hurt

701
00:42:42,972 --> 00:42:45,852
no one yeah you asked me about the 10 years right

702
00:42:45,852 --> 00:42:50,012
when daddy was fixing to leave we're talking about that a little bit yeah yeah

703
00:42:50,012 --> 00:42:55,512
let's go to that let's go back to he's kind of he's he's not hinting toward

704
00:42:55,512 --> 00:43:02,292
retirement yet and you and and uncle john have well he he is i guess he because

705
00:43:02,292 --> 00:43:04,612
he's letting us know he wants us he's training any all up?

706
00:43:04,932 --> 00:43:07,952
Yeah. Well, he's letting us know that he's going to be retired and we needed

707
00:43:07,952 --> 00:43:10,932
to have each saved $6,000. Okay.

708
00:43:11,692 --> 00:43:16,672
And I was what, 20, let me think now.

709
00:43:16,772 --> 00:43:19,772
How old was I? 90, about 28 years old.

710
00:43:20,292 --> 00:43:23,272
And so I'd been married, I was married, married.

711
00:43:23,712 --> 00:43:26,772
Before I was married, I was making $1.50 an hour. So after I got married,

712
00:43:26,832 --> 00:43:28,272
I was making $2 an hour at the time.

713
00:43:28,552 --> 00:43:32,612
What were your friends making what were they doing oh i had a buddy of mine

714
00:43:32,612 --> 00:43:34,372
making what was kevin making.

715
00:43:35,656 --> 00:43:39,656
He was in college. His dad was giving him $250 a week, and he worked about four hours a week.

716
00:43:40,996 --> 00:43:44,036
No, he probably worked more than that, but still. Yeah, yeah.

717
00:43:44,136 --> 00:43:47,696
A dollar fifty an hour while I was in college, and up until when I got married,

718
00:43:47,776 --> 00:43:51,476
I got a raise. I went to $2 an hour. So it's not easy to save $6,000.

719
00:43:52,116 --> 00:43:55,116
Buddies in the oil field? Stuff like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

720
00:43:55,176 --> 00:43:56,136
It was his dad's company.

721
00:43:56,536 --> 00:43:59,676
But all your college buddies, what are they doing after college?

722
00:43:59,676 --> 00:44:08,276
Much well right at the end of college i so yeah i had i had a heck of a graduating year in 84,

723
00:44:09,036 --> 00:44:13,396
so inside of uh about a four month period five month period so i graduate college,

724
00:44:13,956 --> 00:44:20,356
in may i decide in august to run for terrible parish school board okay i heard

725
00:44:20,356 --> 00:44:25,656
some stories about this age of 20 years old i don't know much so yeah so i've

726
00:44:25,656 --> 00:44:29,916
run and win that and then i'm I'm married about a month after that.

727
00:44:30,036 --> 00:44:31,876
So we're inside of about a full month period.

728
00:44:34,056 --> 00:44:39,496
Yeah, I'm graduated, run for school board, the youngest elected official in

729
00:44:39,496 --> 00:44:40,996
the state of Louisiana at the time ever.

730
00:44:41,596 --> 00:44:44,656
I know there's been some younger than me since then. And why'd you want to do

731
00:44:44,656 --> 00:44:46,976
that? That's a good question. You loved school.

732
00:44:47,716 --> 00:44:50,856
You know, my mom was a teacher, dad, all his sisters were teachers.

733
00:44:51,156 --> 00:44:55,696
I loved the thought of teachers. You know, I think I had some very good ones

734
00:44:55,696 --> 00:45:00,056
in my, you know, I went to public schools, but yeah, I had some great, great teachers.

735
00:45:00,136 --> 00:45:03,576
I was really blessed with some great teachers that pushed me a little bit,

736
00:45:03,636 --> 00:45:05,376
you know, and, you know, I needed it.

737
00:45:05,796 --> 00:45:12,236
But yeah, yeah, just I liked teachers and I wanted to maybe make a difference there, you know.

738
00:45:12,636 --> 00:45:15,936
And I mean, it was kind of long-term, kind of a stepping stone.

739
00:45:16,016 --> 00:45:20,336
The summer or two before that, Dave Trane had run for office and my buddy Kevin was real big.

740
00:45:20,436 --> 00:45:22,636
His aunt was real big in his campaign. pain. So.

741
00:45:23,927 --> 00:45:26,787
We did put up a bunch of signs. That's my first taste of politics,

742
00:45:26,947 --> 00:45:30,687
I guess, at about 20, 19 years old and ended up meeting him.

743
00:45:30,767 --> 00:45:32,447
You know, that was pretty exciting for a young kid.

744
00:45:33,567 --> 00:45:36,187
And so, yeah, that's kind of where I got my taste, I guess, for politics.

745
00:45:37,547 --> 00:45:40,427
I'm not into politics, but do you still have a taste for politics?

746
00:45:41,107 --> 00:45:43,807
No. Has it changed since then? Yeah. Yeah, it has.

747
00:45:44,527 --> 00:45:47,867
Yeah. You don't want to be the politician. You want to be the man behind him.

748
00:45:49,047 --> 00:45:53,867
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, a very wise man once told me,

749
00:45:53,947 --> 00:45:56,747
he was our district attorney in Terrebonne Parish.

750
00:45:56,747 --> 00:46:02,087
He said, you know, Donald, he says, once you get elected and you have to make

751
00:46:02,087 --> 00:46:06,667
decisions on any board or whatever, parish council, he says,

752
00:46:06,707 --> 00:46:10,947
from then on, the whole time, you very seldom make friends.

753
00:46:11,087 --> 00:46:15,547
All you do is make enemies. And I never understood when he said that or make people mad at you.

754
00:46:15,587 --> 00:46:19,647
But every time you say yes or no to a vote, somebody's not happy.

755
00:46:20,327 --> 00:46:22,387
Somebody is not happy with that decision.

756
00:46:24,967 --> 00:46:28,667
So, yeah. Yeah. And he was right. Like I said, I was a young age when he told

757
00:46:28,667 --> 00:46:29,667
me that. I didn't catch it.

758
00:46:29,727 --> 00:46:32,927
But yeah, it took a few years when I realized, you know, there was a lot of

759
00:46:32,927 --> 00:46:35,187
wisdom in what he told me. I didn't understand it at the time.

760
00:46:35,387 --> 00:46:39,927
And people are more inclined to tell you when you made them mad than when you

761
00:46:39,927 --> 00:46:41,167
made them happy. Oh, yeah.

762
00:46:41,527 --> 00:46:45,107
Yeah. You never hear, you very seldom get the pats on the back. That's a trend.

763
00:46:45,227 --> 00:46:48,967
And that's just life. That's people. That's human nature, unfortunately,

764
00:46:49,087 --> 00:46:50,407
but that's just, it is what it is.

765
00:46:52,311 --> 00:46:55,271
When did the slaughterhouse close? Man, what year?

766
00:46:55,931 --> 00:46:58,971
Best guess, around 2000 maybe, maybe a little bit before that.

767
00:46:59,571 --> 00:47:02,631
How old were you when you slaughtered your first cow? Well, I mean,

768
00:47:02,651 --> 00:47:05,991
I can remember five, six years old, Cleve would hold a gun and he'd let us pull the trigger.

769
00:47:07,091 --> 00:47:09,071
Right here, right in the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the back here.

770
00:47:09,111 --> 00:47:11,391
Yeah, yeah, that's when we slaughtered. So if you pass the market,

771
00:47:11,471 --> 00:47:14,931
if you're passing the market and you pass the taller portion.

772
00:47:15,331 --> 00:47:16,311
Yeah, the metal. Right.

773
00:47:16,751 --> 00:47:20,571
That was a slaughterhouse. The big, tall metal building. That was a slaughterhouse.

774
00:47:20,731 --> 00:47:23,611
Yeah. But before that, that was built in 72.

775
00:47:23,851 --> 00:47:26,511
So I was about 10, 11 years old when that was built.

776
00:47:26,891 --> 00:47:29,191
But before that, they slaughtered right there where y'all make the boudin.

777
00:47:29,411 --> 00:47:33,511
That was a slaughterhouse. And the boudin and the sausage, we did everything in that one little room.

778
00:47:34,671 --> 00:47:40,251
So what we did, Shane, where the back cooler door is, we backed the trailer

779
00:47:40,251 --> 00:47:42,731
to that door. Daddy had two big swinging doors right there.

780
00:47:43,131 --> 00:47:45,331
They'd back a big, big square trailer there.

781
00:47:45,771 --> 00:47:49,931
They'd try to push the cattle that they wanted to kill to the back of the trailer.

782
00:47:49,931 --> 00:47:53,751
Somebody would go outside, kind of push them towards the building,

783
00:47:53,851 --> 00:47:57,151
to the back of the trailer, and somebody would be inside with a gun, and they'd shoot them.

784
00:47:57,231 --> 00:48:00,871
Try to drop them near the door, but not where you couldn't open the door.

785
00:48:01,751 --> 00:48:06,131
Right. And we'd hurry up and push them to the front and stand.

786
00:48:06,251 --> 00:48:08,771
Somebody would make sure to try not to, because sometimes they would charge

787
00:48:08,771 --> 00:48:11,531
you, and you'd have to hurry up and get the dead animal out,

788
00:48:11,551 --> 00:48:12,651
and hurry up and close the door.

789
00:48:13,011 --> 00:48:15,591
So it was, and they did it that way for, I don't know how long,

790
00:48:15,691 --> 00:48:20,751
probably since it was built. That was built probably in the early 50s, that particular.

791
00:48:21,331 --> 00:48:24,711
I heard Mr. Cleave punch a cow out cold with his- No, not Mr.

792
00:48:24,811 --> 00:48:28,071
Cleave. No? No, that was Nanny.

793
00:48:28,551 --> 00:48:32,211
That was a boy, I say a boy, a man from the ridge. I don't know his real name.

794
00:48:32,351 --> 00:48:34,031
Big boy. Yeah. Punch it, bare knuckle.

795
00:48:34,631 --> 00:48:39,011
I heard many stories about Nanny. Nanny, from what I hear, was- Nanny.

796
00:48:39,191 --> 00:48:42,771
So if y'all ever heard about Big John, okay, if you ever heard that song,

797
00:48:43,071 --> 00:48:45,991
that had to, I've only, I can vaguely remember him.

798
00:48:46,031 --> 00:48:49,751
He died many years ago, but, From everything I've heard about him,

799
00:48:49,831 --> 00:48:53,811
he was a man's man's man. Like just powerful. Nanny.

800
00:48:55,327 --> 00:48:58,427
Yeah, you know, I've heard stories of him just sitting there and people punch

801
00:48:58,427 --> 00:49:01,907
him right square across the chin and he just kind of smile at him.

802
00:49:01,967 --> 00:49:03,887
Right. You know, just tough and just.

803
00:49:04,927 --> 00:49:07,627
Now, that being said, I heard he wasn't the brightest person in the shed,

804
00:49:07,767 --> 00:49:10,027
but he was a good soul from what I, you know, a good man.

805
00:49:10,167 --> 00:49:14,307
But yeah, yeah. He said he came there that day and he watched daddy and him

806
00:49:14,307 --> 00:49:15,447
shoot him. This was before inspection.

807
00:49:16,227 --> 00:49:19,967
And when he got up to the next one, nanny was back there BSing with him and

808
00:49:19,967 --> 00:49:22,387
all. And he knew Mr. Cleaver, wouldn't he? And my dad knew him well too.

809
00:49:22,867 --> 00:49:26,827
But, oh, man, Mr. Lester, he says, save your bullets. He went over there and

810
00:49:26,827 --> 00:49:30,307
punched him and knocked him out in the head. Knocked him out. Yep.

811
00:49:31,467 --> 00:49:34,147
Knocked him out with his fist. Save your bullets, Mr. Lester.

812
00:49:34,147 --> 00:49:38,647
What a hero. That's called a hero. No, that's a man with big hands. Big hands.

813
00:49:39,647 --> 00:49:42,867
I guess they don't make guys like that today, right? They do.

814
00:49:42,947 --> 00:49:46,227
They just don't use it. You think anyone in Louisiana punched a cow out cold

815
00:49:46,227 --> 00:49:48,547
with their bare knuckles this year? He's the only one I've heard. No. No.

816
00:49:49,227 --> 00:49:52,327
I don't think so. They probably didn't spank their dog that hard.

817
00:49:56,807 --> 00:50:02,587
But anyway. So do you remember what year or time frame when you stopped slaughtering?

818
00:50:02,787 --> 00:50:04,807
Like I said, roughly, it was a little before 2000.

819
00:50:05,487 --> 00:50:08,807
Pawpaw was gone. Yeah, you and John had it. And the reason why we did it,

820
00:50:08,827 --> 00:50:12,667
it was going to be a pain in the butt. Man, the government would slaughter. I love slaughtering.

821
00:50:12,847 --> 00:50:15,667
It was hard work, but I liked it. We only did it one day a week.

822
00:50:16,047 --> 00:50:18,727
We were killing three, four animals on average a week.

823
00:50:19,267 --> 00:50:23,767
And it just got to be three, four hours of cleaning, scrubbing,

824
00:50:23,767 --> 00:50:25,347
preparation, getting everything ready.

825
00:50:25,747 --> 00:50:29,667
And it would take, you know, at the most two and a half, three hours to slaughter

826
00:50:29,667 --> 00:50:31,787
four animals. And then, you know.

827
00:50:32,992 --> 00:50:37,612
The government just kept getting more and more. We had to buy an incubator to

828
00:50:37,612 --> 00:50:40,492
test for E. coli, swap test all the carcasses.

829
00:50:40,992 --> 00:50:43,552
I mean, I don't even have to be a scientist to be able to slaughter.

830
00:50:44,572 --> 00:50:49,692
So it just got old. And plus, the jerky was really growing, and we were starting

831
00:50:49,692 --> 00:50:51,452
to pop out the seams over here at the time.

832
00:50:52,012 --> 00:50:56,052
So it was the right—I miss it, don't get me wrong, but at the time,

833
00:50:56,052 --> 00:50:59,012
it was probably the right decision. Yeah, so we took the slaughterhouse and

834
00:50:59,012 --> 00:51:02,052
turned it basically into jerky processing, the whole area.

835
00:51:02,372 --> 00:51:06,532
We ended up doing the vacuum packing room and the slicing room and all that.

836
00:51:06,712 --> 00:51:10,552
Did that feel risky, calling it quits on the slaughtering?

837
00:51:10,792 --> 00:51:14,732
No, it didn't feel risky. It just felt like I lost a part of me there. That's all. Yeah.

838
00:51:15,672 --> 00:51:20,112
Isn't it a shame? I mean, I did it for too long. I mean, I probably should have quit sooner.

839
00:51:20,872 --> 00:51:23,452
But financially, I probably should have quit. Let me say it that way,

840
00:51:23,512 --> 00:51:26,232
probably. Because you don't make a lot of money off of that particular thing.

841
00:51:26,252 --> 00:51:27,152
It's the process and stuff.

842
00:51:28,052 --> 00:51:31,432
That's what the money's made. But it was just a part of me. I'd been doing it

843
00:51:31,432 --> 00:51:34,292
since, like I said, five, six years old. I killed probably my first pig and cow.

844
00:51:35,072 --> 00:51:37,132
Miss Cleve would hold a gun and he'd let me pull the trigger.

845
00:51:38,092 --> 00:51:40,732
Kind of cool as a little kid. It kind of reminds me of today.

846
00:51:41,632 --> 00:51:45,712
We're at the Thibodeau market right now, and you look at that saw right there

847
00:51:45,712 --> 00:51:50,852
and think about how many calves have been cut on there. How many sevens? How many pork chops?

848
00:51:51,512 --> 00:51:57,672
How sad would you be if we stopped doing calf cuts? Yeah, with the new location, both stopped.

849
00:51:58,412 --> 00:52:01,132
And I probably was the one that advised them to do it because there's just no

850
00:52:01,132 --> 00:52:03,532
money in it, and you don't sell a lot of it.

851
00:52:04,892 --> 00:52:07,812
People just don't eat that way anymore, really, is what it amounts to.

852
00:52:07,912 --> 00:52:11,752
People don't cook. It takes time to cook those things. Patience.

853
00:52:11,752 --> 00:52:12,212
People want something fast.

854
00:52:13,952 --> 00:52:17,352
And it'll probably come back someday, and I hope we don't get rid of it.

855
00:52:17,572 --> 00:52:20,752
It takes patience, and it takes learning. It takes the generational.

856
00:52:21,112 --> 00:52:23,492
Yeah, it takes that grandma to teach you how to do that. Yeah,

857
00:52:23,552 --> 00:52:26,092
you got to have the hand down, you know? Yeah, yeah.

858
00:52:26,192 --> 00:52:29,132
We're losing that, unfortunately. Not everywhere it is.

859
00:52:30,580 --> 00:52:33,800
You go yeah we i guess people don't

860
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:36,700
people don't know that that's not a money-making product

861
00:52:36,700 --> 00:52:39,660
and that's that's something we're doing to make people to make

862
00:52:39,660 --> 00:52:42,880
people happy to keep them yeah cooking the same things they're used to cooking

863
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:47,920
i hope so and fulfilling those recipes they have that were passed down by grandma

864
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:53,760
great-grandma it's it's hard to do because it takes so much training yeah it

865
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:56,920
takes another thing finding people a hell of a lot of training to learn how

866
00:52:56,920 --> 00:52:59,180
to break it down and all. Yeah, it does. It takes time.

867
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:02,320
And you don't want to invest that in somebody young if they're only going to

868
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:05,060
be here for a year. I mean, it takes five years to learn it.

869
00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:06,420
That's one of those things in the building.

870
00:53:06,860 --> 00:53:12,420
We don't really let anyone under 25 touch that saw just as our own personal

871
00:53:12,420 --> 00:53:16,000
rule, but it takes maturity. It takes a lot, man.

872
00:53:16,580 --> 00:53:21,460
You know, nowadays you hear a lot about people being racist and prejudiced.

873
00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:25,160
That's one thing Mr. Cleave always used to say about that saw.

874
00:53:25,540 --> 00:53:28,320
He said, that saw is neither racist or prejudiced.

875
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:33,820
If you put your finger in it, regardless of what or who you are, it will cut you. Right.

876
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:39,260
I used to like, oh, Mr. Cleave had so many good sayings. But yeah, that saw is not,

877
00:53:40,186 --> 00:53:43,726
is not prejudiced at all, and it will cut you. But yeah, you need maturity to

878
00:53:43,726 --> 00:53:48,106
use it. And the key is, especially over the years, man, we used to be so busy in here.

879
00:53:48,606 --> 00:53:51,926
I know people probably thought I was very rude because when I'm on that saw,

880
00:53:52,066 --> 00:53:53,646
I ignore, I turn everything off.

881
00:53:54,346 --> 00:53:57,666
Everything around me, I turn it off. All it takes is one glance up.

882
00:53:57,806 --> 00:54:00,606
If somebody, hey, Donald, and you just look up while you're cutting something,

883
00:54:00,886 --> 00:54:02,266
that could cost you a finger.

884
00:54:02,426 --> 00:54:07,766
Right. So I liked my fingers. So take being, people think I'm rude over losing a finger.

885
00:54:07,966 --> 00:54:10,406
Right. So, and that, that, that was my attitude over the years,

886
00:54:10,446 --> 00:54:11,546
but Ms. Cleve taught me that way.

887
00:54:11,986 --> 00:54:16,386
When you're on that saw, you don't play, you, you, you focus and you concentrate on what you're doing.

888
00:54:16,486 --> 00:54:20,026
What is it about? It's something that's so cool though, is being on that saw,

889
00:54:20,186 --> 00:54:25,166
you know, cutting up, cutting up for good and at four and you get a little line

890
00:54:25,166 --> 00:54:30,266
and man, the way people watch you, it's, it's almost, yeah, it is.

891
00:54:30,306 --> 00:54:35,046
But it, but for someone who likes that, it's a extreme sport almost, you know?

892
00:54:35,186 --> 00:54:38,126
Yeah. Cause not, you don't see that every day. I love it. Especially cutting up for boudin.

893
00:54:38,266 --> 00:54:41,226
That's something you don't – yeah, cutting up for boudin is not like cutting

894
00:54:41,226 --> 00:54:43,886
a steak or a chop. You know what I mean? That's different.

895
00:54:44,126 --> 00:54:47,186
People are looking. They don't have a clue why you're doing what you're doing.

896
00:54:47,246 --> 00:54:51,686
Yeah. And doing that, that being said, you're not going to lose a finger if you get hit there.

897
00:54:52,306 --> 00:54:55,266
Good chance you'll lose your whole hand. You know, really, really,

898
00:54:55,346 --> 00:54:58,886
because you don't have the guard on with a one-inch or a half-inch.

899
00:54:59,026 --> 00:55:02,106
You freestyle. You only lose a little piece. You're going to lose a lot if you

900
00:55:02,106 --> 00:55:03,086
get hit while you're doing that.

901
00:55:03,706 --> 00:55:05,686
But those are things that – That's the scariest, that's probably the scariest

902
00:55:05,686 --> 00:55:07,666
thing to do in a saw, is cutting up a Buddha hen, honestly.

903
00:55:07,826 --> 00:55:12,566
Those are the next things in my mind that we have comparable to y'all,

904
00:55:12,586 --> 00:55:17,326
you know, losing the slaughtering process, like the veal cuts and man,

905
00:55:17,426 --> 00:55:20,526
anything that's not easy and already done for you,

906
00:55:21,006 --> 00:55:23,246
I'm afraid that people stop ordering.

907
00:55:23,286 --> 00:55:26,946
Let me, I'ma spread a little, I guess, wisdom or whatever you want to call it.

908
00:55:26,986 --> 00:55:29,126
So daddy, daddy lived to be 97.

909
00:55:29,546 --> 00:55:33,366
My grandma lived to be, his mama lived to be, I think 91.

910
00:55:34,470 --> 00:55:38,430
90, 91, something like that. They eat their share of meat. Even when they were

911
00:55:38,430 --> 00:55:40,110
poor and young, they had a meat market.

912
00:55:40,230 --> 00:55:45,030
So we ate a good bit of meat. It might have been the neck or the feet or the

913
00:55:45,030 --> 00:55:46,850
hooves. The last thing standing.

914
00:55:46,970 --> 00:55:49,010
Yeah, yeah. Whatever they couldn't sell that week.

915
00:55:50,510 --> 00:55:53,890
But 90 plus percent of it was all grass-fed stuff.

916
00:55:55,550 --> 00:55:59,630
And I'm convinced over the years of selling, we have some really good steaks.

917
00:55:59,670 --> 00:56:04,030
And I love a good steak as far as a heavy beef steak. but vast majority of meat

918
00:56:04,030 --> 00:56:07,130
you get in these grocery stores and anywhere in the country is that heavy beef stuff.

919
00:56:07,690 --> 00:56:11,290
I'm convinced that that's what clogs up arteries and gives you the cholesterol

920
00:56:11,290 --> 00:56:12,450
and stuff is that heavy beef.

921
00:56:12,890 --> 00:56:16,430
I mean, that, I mean, granted daddy had a little bit high cholesterol, but it wasn't horrible.

922
00:56:16,630 --> 00:56:20,050
You know what I mean? It was, it was, and he never, he never,

923
00:56:20,070 --> 00:56:20,850
he never was overweight.

924
00:56:20,990 --> 00:56:24,850
So I think eating, eating that particular type of meat is not that bad for you.

925
00:56:24,930 --> 00:56:27,770
I'm really convinced of that. And time has taught me that, I think,

926
00:56:28,310 --> 00:56:31,810
but it's that heavy beef. I think that'll get you. But it takes a skill.

927
00:56:32,650 --> 00:56:35,470
You can't, it's not something you can order it and cook it like.

928
00:56:35,470 --> 00:56:36,810
I know, and y'all are the last ones that have it right now.

929
00:56:36,950 --> 00:56:39,970
You can't just order it, cook it how you want it, and it come out good.

930
00:56:40,010 --> 00:56:40,970
You have to know something.

931
00:56:41,290 --> 00:56:44,710
You have to know a little something. Yeah, you can't take grass-fed and cook

932
00:56:44,710 --> 00:56:46,950
it like a grill, honestly. You can.

933
00:56:47,570 --> 00:56:51,770
I don't think you'd be very happy with it, you know, grilling it on a barbecue pit or whatever.

934
00:56:52,690 --> 00:56:55,550
Yeah, it needs, most of it needs to be smothered down, honestly.

935
00:56:55,710 --> 00:57:00,310
Yeah. You know, now you can take the veal cutlets, pan them and fry them. you know, I eat my share.

936
00:57:00,430 --> 00:57:04,050
Like I guess back when I was young, we ate a lot of chuck chops, dude.

937
00:57:04,690 --> 00:57:09,370
The whole family. Apparently back then people, it's funny how things change.

938
00:57:09,470 --> 00:57:13,110
So when I was young, I think from what I understand, what daddy tells me,

939
00:57:13,210 --> 00:57:15,450
you couldn't keep round steaks in here.

940
00:57:16,010 --> 00:57:18,730
How is it now, Shane? A round steak. Yeah, a round steak. Couldn't keep them.

941
00:57:19,630 --> 00:57:23,150
You could put it in a pup, you can grind it up in a pup stick and not sell it.

942
00:57:23,150 --> 00:57:28,450
It that's what i'm saying nobody buys them anymore that that's crazy back back

943
00:57:28,450 --> 00:57:33,190
like i said as a kid and for what mr cleveland all tells me before my time that's

944
00:57:33,190 --> 00:57:36,350
what everybody wanted and they smother it you know it's made to smother down

945
00:57:36,350 --> 00:57:39,230
they cut them different you know a lot of sometimes they do a dough but most

946
00:57:39,230 --> 00:57:41,910
of the time they cut them real thin and they they'd smother them down

947
00:57:42,350 --> 00:57:46,650
but uh in recent years what's the thing still it's still chuck and nick sevens

948
00:57:46,650 --> 00:57:50,490
seven well you never we never yeah that's been forever you never you can we

949
00:57:50,490 --> 00:57:52,650
got a list of sevens we got a list of Chuck,

950
00:57:52,830 --> 00:57:57,570
if you can grow a genetically modified number seven cow, you'd be a millionaire.

951
00:58:00,009 --> 00:58:03,089
But, yeah, you get those families in. It's the families you know,

952
00:58:03,249 --> 00:58:05,869
you know, the Josephs, Slenda.

953
00:58:06,189 --> 00:58:10,729
She's – her daughters, and I think – Oh, her daughters come in here?

954
00:58:10,889 --> 00:58:14,149
I think her granddaughters come in here. Oh, awesome. They live in local?

955
00:58:14,849 --> 00:58:18,869
I'm assuming they're here. Okay. I don't think they used to, but I'm glad.

956
00:58:19,549 --> 00:58:22,749
That's good. But that family, you know, we recognize them. We see them. That's good.

957
00:58:22,949 --> 00:58:26,669
But who else? Who else? I guarantee you they know how to cook.

958
00:58:26,869 --> 00:58:30,349
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. they're not ordering what they ordered on accident.

959
00:58:30,469 --> 00:58:33,569
They still got some out there. They just, and they're not following a trend

960
00:58:33,569 --> 00:58:37,049
that they're seeing online where they got a special recipe, you know,

961
00:58:37,589 --> 00:58:38,929
that's just how they eat.

962
00:58:39,029 --> 00:58:44,169
Yeah. Yeah. And that's what it takes. You got to have people who they're not trying something new.

963
00:58:44,709 --> 00:58:49,269
They have a, you know, eating is a part of life and people are afraid to make it a routine.

964
00:58:49,589 --> 00:58:54,029
They're afraid to make it. That's a good point. I've thought about that. This is what we do. Yeah.

965
00:58:54,309 --> 00:58:57,649
Mama, mama. Yeah. We had, wasn't so much a routine, but like,

966
00:58:58,029 --> 00:59:01,189
There was, we ate the same stuff regularly.

967
00:59:01,549 --> 00:59:04,509
You know what I mean? Like smothered the chuck. Back then, like I said,

968
00:59:04,569 --> 00:59:08,529
I think it was the exact opposite back then. They couldn't give away chuck in the neck hardly.

969
00:59:09,789 --> 00:59:12,829
But now it's the exact opposite. You can't keep them now.

970
00:59:13,749 --> 00:59:16,649
But it's just, I mean, we ate a lot of that. And look, we ate,

971
00:59:16,749 --> 00:59:20,169
I bet you this is something you never ate, that we ate quite a, pretty regular.

972
00:59:20,669 --> 00:59:23,149
And I'm not talking about the big end of the chuck. You know,

973
00:59:23,169 --> 00:59:26,049
going towards the neck, the small end. You cut it real thin.

974
00:59:26,789 --> 00:59:31,029
Thin as you can almost. and fry them. In between the chuck and the rib?

975
00:59:31,489 --> 00:59:34,609
Well, the chuck chop, but closer to the neck, Connor. Okay. You know,

976
00:59:34,629 --> 00:59:37,429
that's the toughest part of the chuck, right?

977
00:59:37,569 --> 00:59:40,069
I've never fried it. But when you agree, that's the toughest part of the chuck.

978
00:59:40,129 --> 00:59:43,229
Sure, yeah. If you get towards the rib eye, it gets more tender. But yeah, yeah.

979
00:59:43,829 --> 00:59:46,749
Mama used to fry them. And didn't flour them or nothing, just fried them.

980
00:59:47,229 --> 00:59:51,229
Okay. But apparently, Daddy just couldn't sell them. And I mean,

981
00:59:51,229 --> 00:59:54,529
we had seven of us, so she'd probably fry, I don't know, because I'd make sure

982
00:59:54,529 --> 00:59:57,589
I got two of them. So she might have fried 15 or 20, who knows.

983
00:59:58,149 --> 01:00:02,289
But I mean, back then the calves were smaller too, I find. And you can't,

984
01:00:02,289 --> 01:00:04,309
you just, they don't slaughter smaller calves now.

985
01:00:04,389 --> 01:00:07,069
That's part of the issue too. The calves are bigger, so they're going to be

986
01:00:07,069 --> 01:00:08,009
a little tougher probably.

987
01:00:08,629 --> 01:00:13,209
But yeah, our calves, man. Oh, and let me tell you that story, talking about cut meat.

988
01:00:14,309 --> 01:00:17,069
So me and John B., we bought a business, do all the paperwork,

989
01:00:17,209 --> 01:00:21,889
like August 1st or whatever, you know, January 30th, whatever it was.

990
01:00:22,689 --> 01:00:25,769
So the auction is Tuesday and we slaughtered on Wednesday. Okay.

991
01:00:27,025 --> 01:00:32,205
So, me and John B. come to work Monday, Tuesday morning. We're like, we need some meat.

992
01:00:33,965 --> 01:00:36,925
You know how to buy cows? No. You? No.

993
01:00:39,345 --> 01:00:43,185
I mean, we went to daddy, to the auction with daddy, but we never sat with him

994
01:00:43,185 --> 01:00:47,365
or he never showed us zero in the auction, ever, nothing.

995
01:00:47,785 --> 01:00:52,605
You weren't supposed to be watching. I guess. I thought he maybe thought we were watching, maybe.

996
01:00:52,765 --> 01:00:56,745
But I mean, I never went with him after I started working here.

997
01:00:56,745 --> 01:01:00,605
This was as kids, like teenagers, we used to come and during the summer,

998
01:01:00,645 --> 01:01:04,005
we'd go with them sometimes and hang out at the auction and go look at the cattle

999
01:01:04,005 --> 01:01:04,945
in the barn and stuff like that.

1000
01:01:05,065 --> 01:01:09,265
But yeah, so we're like, oh, shoot. So, all right, I guess I'm the one.

1001
01:01:09,865 --> 01:01:13,085
Where was the auction? I was the older brother. The Thibodeau auction right

1002
01:01:13,085 --> 01:01:14,705
here. You know where it was?

1003
01:01:15,845 --> 01:01:18,725
Toward Hero Park? Yeah, past Heroes. What is that, Richfield?

1004
01:01:18,865 --> 01:01:21,565
I guess way down by the end. They got housing and all there now.

1005
01:01:21,565 --> 01:01:23,385
Towards Thibodeau High. It was on the left. I think the barn's still there.

1006
01:01:24,005 --> 01:01:26,845
Past Thibodeau High and all. It's on the left as you go right before you get

1007
01:01:26,845 --> 01:01:30,845
to Brulee and all. Okay. But not far, maybe a quarter mile before the Brulee or so.

1008
01:01:31,525 --> 01:01:35,625
But anyway, so I get in there and I didn't know the routine of how they did

1009
01:01:35,625 --> 01:01:36,725
things. Okay. I learned.

1010
01:01:37,305 --> 01:01:40,545
How many people are at the auction? Oh, there's a hundred.

1011
01:01:41,365 --> 01:01:44,625
Not 70 for sure. Okay. Buyers, you know.

1012
01:01:44,765 --> 01:01:48,045
And of the, yeah, let me see, probably a hundred, maybe 70 to a hundred,

1013
01:01:48,085 --> 01:01:52,605
but only like 10 or 15 are buying. And y'all are 20 years old?

1014
01:01:53,085 --> 01:01:56,165
Yeah. Yeah. And everyone else is in their 60s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1015
01:01:56,845 --> 01:02:00,225
So I'm watching. Well, I'm by myself. John's like, you got to go.

1016
01:02:00,285 --> 01:02:02,325
I'm the older brother, you know? So I'm like, all right, I'm going to go.

1017
01:02:02,945 --> 01:02:07,365
So I go over there. I don't know what I'm doing. So I didn't know this at the

1018
01:02:07,365 --> 01:02:10,505
time, but the way they ran the auction, they ran the cows first.

1019
01:02:10,765 --> 01:02:17,445
Okay. So cows are bigger, older animals, and that's when you use for ground meat.

1020
01:02:18,145 --> 01:02:20,705
It's cheaper. It's not like a calf. Calf's a lot more expensive,

1021
01:02:20,825 --> 01:02:25,145
and it's better meat, but more tender. but the cows are older and they're different age cows.

1022
01:02:25,865 --> 01:02:29,205
I didn't know that at the time. You know, I'm watching them come through and,

1023
01:02:29,245 --> 01:02:31,365
oh, man, that's too expensive. I didn't even know how much they were.

1024
01:02:32,345 --> 01:02:34,885
And they sell them by the pound, you know, at the time, I don't know,

1025
01:02:34,885 --> 01:02:36,965
75 cents a pound, dollar, I don't remember what it was.

1026
01:02:38,863 --> 01:02:41,003
Yeah, so they're coming through and coming through, and I'm like,

1027
01:02:41,003 --> 01:02:45,183
I bet maybe on one or two, and it went up, and I'm like, so anyway,

1028
01:02:45,263 --> 01:02:48,083
next thing you know, no more cows are coming through. It's nothing but calves.

1029
01:02:48,723 --> 01:02:51,783
So I'm like, oh, shit, no more cows. I need a cow. I think that's all we needed

1030
01:02:51,783 --> 01:02:55,543
that week maybe. I don't remember buying a calf. I may have. I don't know.

1031
01:02:56,163 --> 01:02:59,023
But I remember the cow, and there's a reason I remember that cow.

1032
01:02:59,863 --> 01:03:02,923
So they run everything through, and I sit there for hours and hours.

1033
01:03:02,963 --> 01:03:06,483
They run all kind of pigs through the calves and stuff, a lot of calves.

1034
01:03:07,343 --> 01:03:11,243
So, you know, back, there were auctions back then. They'd run 1,500 plus through there.

1035
01:03:11,543 --> 01:03:14,563
Oh, wow. Oh, yeah, yeah. You'd be there till six, seven o'clock at night,

1036
01:03:14,563 --> 01:03:17,903
later sometimes. Wow. People from out of town? Yeah. Some of them. Yeah.

1037
01:03:18,483 --> 01:03:22,443
But so, yeah. So, it wasn't that late. This wasn't that huge of a sale,

1038
01:03:22,523 --> 01:03:25,723
but it was, you know, I know I'm pretty sure John was wondering where the heck I was.

1039
01:03:26,443 --> 01:03:29,863
But so, finally, I mean, they were finished. There was no more cattle.

1040
01:03:30,483 --> 01:03:35,983
So, I think Gene Voiron, who was the owner, he knew who I was and all. He knew Daddy real well.

1041
01:03:36,103 --> 01:03:39,463
So I think he went and found a couple of them that maybe didn't sell or something.

1042
01:03:40,823 --> 01:03:45,103
Because he would buy some himself to resell somewhere else or whatever maybe.

1043
01:03:45,263 --> 01:03:46,583
But anyway, so he ran a few more through.

1044
01:03:47,203 --> 01:03:50,423
And boy, there was a cheap one came through. Oh, I want him.

1045
01:03:50,863 --> 01:03:55,403
That's the one I want. And when they came into the ring, he announces it's a

1046
01:03:55,403 --> 01:03:57,503
zero brand. It's a broke mouth.

1047
01:03:58,663 --> 01:04:03,663
And other than that, they'd have a, well, it had a BM on them.

1048
01:04:03,743 --> 01:04:04,603
I didn't know what the hell. A broke mouth.

1049
01:04:04,943 --> 01:04:08,263
Well, he wouldn't announce it. It had a BM on it, okay? Or they had a zero,

1050
01:04:08,343 --> 01:04:11,483
or they'd have a number, one through usually about eight, more or less.

1051
01:04:11,983 --> 01:04:15,803
And it was like chalk almost. I guess it was a paint they used and it was near their rump.

1052
01:04:16,263 --> 01:04:18,103
I didn't know what none of that meant. Well, this was a zero.

1053
01:04:18,303 --> 01:04:21,663
I didn't know what the heck that meant, but he was cheap. I thought,

1054
01:04:21,723 --> 01:04:22,703
oh yeah, that's the one I want.

1055
01:04:23,603 --> 01:04:27,883
This was a good lesson. It taught me never to buy cheap. So I get back, I get to, you know, bye.

1056
01:04:28,023 --> 01:04:30,663
So I'm like, I can go back to work. So I run back to work, blah,

1057
01:04:30,683 --> 01:04:33,043
blah, blah. Get in here the next morning, we get ready to slaughter.

1058
01:04:34,443 --> 01:04:39,183
And back then, you know, it was under inspection. So I get back there and this cow is on the floor.

1059
01:04:39,923 --> 01:04:43,703
Can't get him up. And he's not supposed to, they're not supposed to allow us

1060
01:04:43,703 --> 01:04:46,123
to drag them in. They have to be able to walk in on their own.

1061
01:04:46,603 --> 01:04:49,203
And of course, they made us put a stupid cement floor back there,

1062
01:04:49,263 --> 01:04:51,903
which even a healthy cow, a lot of times falls on it.

1063
01:04:52,223 --> 01:04:58,603
But he fell and we couldn't get him up. and but he he was when i got there he

1064
01:04:58,603 --> 01:04:59,703
was laying down and he was like.

1065
01:05:05,163 --> 01:05:09,643
He was pretty much on his last breath maybe i don't know it ain't good so i'm

1066
01:05:09,643 --> 01:05:13,283
like oh god what are we gonna do thank god i think the inspector felt for me

1067
01:05:13,283 --> 01:05:17,303
that day he allowed us to uh drag it in well he checked it he has to check it

1068
01:05:17,303 --> 01:05:19,583
for temperature it did it wasn't if he'd have been running a temperature he

1069
01:05:19,583 --> 01:05:21,803
would not have let me kill it but it wasn't running a temperature and So it

1070
01:05:21,803 --> 01:05:22,663
wasn't sick or anything.

1071
01:05:23,243 --> 01:05:26,103
And he just wore himself out on that cement more than anything, probably.

1072
01:05:26,203 --> 01:05:31,503
But anyway, so yeah, he did. Thank God he let me. He did let me slaughter that cow that day.

1073
01:05:31,803 --> 01:05:37,523
But that is the last zero ever walk into this building ever. In fact.

1074
01:05:38,558 --> 01:05:41,878
I don't think I allowed a five to walk into this building. Everything I ever

1075
01:05:41,878 --> 01:05:44,318
bought was between two and five or two and four.

1076
01:05:44,518 --> 01:05:46,878
I love those younger cows. Man, it's just better meat.

1077
01:05:47,238 --> 01:05:51,058
I learned. It took me a few weeks, but that's pretty much it.

1078
01:05:51,138 --> 01:05:53,558
Yeah, MZeroes came in. I looked the other way.

1079
01:05:55,178 --> 01:05:59,738
That's how my daddy taught, though. Man, he let you make mistakes, and he didn't care.

1080
01:06:00,038 --> 01:06:03,238
You think he knew what was going to happen? Probably. I wouldn't be surprised.

1081
01:06:03,558 --> 01:06:05,878
I never told him that story. He probably didn't even know that story.

1082
01:06:05,878 --> 01:06:09,478
I wonder if he called someone and said, hey, Donald's going to be there.

1083
01:06:09,878 --> 01:06:12,458
Keep an eye on him. No, daddy did not do that.

1084
01:06:12,918 --> 01:06:15,018
Because I wouldn't have had a zero if they'd have kept an eye on me.

1085
01:06:18,618 --> 01:06:22,918
I'm sure someone laughed when you left. No, they didn't. They probably felt

1086
01:06:22,918 --> 01:06:24,278
sorry for me because I didn't know.

1087
01:06:25,698 --> 01:06:29,418
I bet you daddy, I should have told daddy that story. I don't think he's ever

1088
01:06:29,418 --> 01:06:30,978
heard that story. I don't know why.

1089
01:06:31,538 --> 01:06:34,278
But, I mean, I was busy working from then on. Me and John, I mean,

1090
01:06:34,298 --> 01:06:35,558
that was our ball game from there.

1091
01:06:36,078 --> 01:06:38,358
And he like, you know, we were kind of expecting him to come in here.

1092
01:06:38,458 --> 01:06:40,678
And he's like, where's daddy? Seen daddy? No.

1093
01:06:41,338 --> 01:06:44,298
It was a little bit of a shock because, you know, you're used to that every

1094
01:06:44,298 --> 01:06:47,718
day, every day as a young person. And I mean, we're 20, 19, 20, 21 years old.

1095
01:06:48,218 --> 01:06:51,138
No, no, no, not that. I'm sorry. No, we were more like 27, 28.

1096
01:06:51,478 --> 01:06:53,838
Okay. But, you know, you still, you saw him every day.

1097
01:06:54,778 --> 01:06:58,318
So when's the first time you think Bo ran into something like that?

1098
01:06:58,478 --> 01:06:59,578
Oh, that's a good question.

1099
01:06:59,918 --> 01:07:03,138
You know, with Bo, because that happened to me, the way daddy did it.

1100
01:07:04,115 --> 01:07:07,675
Purposely, while I still owned it, I would not show up.

1101
01:07:07,715 --> 01:07:11,075
That last year in business, I knew I was getting kind of close.

1102
01:07:11,235 --> 01:07:13,235
I would purposely not call him or nothing.

1103
01:07:13,475 --> 01:07:17,075
And I just wanted to see how he'd handle it and, you know. Did he call you?

1104
01:07:17,855 --> 01:07:21,615
No. All right. But I was the same way. Like when my workers were off,

1105
01:07:21,795 --> 01:07:25,275
there was a lot of times I could have called him, like mostly just a question

1106
01:07:25,275 --> 01:07:26,355
about an order or something.

1107
01:07:27,075 --> 01:07:30,115
And I did occasionally, but I did everything I could.

1108
01:07:30,175 --> 01:07:33,855
I've been over backwards, never, ever to bug my workers when they were off Because

1109
01:07:33,855 --> 01:07:36,535
I tried to give my workers a day off during the week just to get, you know.

1110
01:07:36,915 --> 01:07:39,375
But back, like my dad and I, when I was coming into this thing,

1111
01:07:39,475 --> 01:07:40,435
look, we didn't take a day off.

1112
01:07:40,655 --> 01:07:43,515
You work six days a week. And we were open until Saturday, until five.

1113
01:07:44,075 --> 01:07:47,955
So, I mean, I think what it was about a 55, 57-hour work week.

1114
01:07:48,115 --> 01:07:53,015
Right. Maybe more than that. Hell, he was open from seven to six when I first

1115
01:07:53,015 --> 01:07:55,415
started. So, what's that? That's an 11-hour day.

1116
01:07:55,955 --> 01:07:58,735
And we didn't, yeah, we did close for lunch. We did close for lunch.

1117
01:07:58,755 --> 01:08:01,615
That's probably 10-hour day. You close up shop, everyone leaves,

1118
01:08:01,735 --> 01:08:03,355
come back at one. And that was whatever.

1119
01:08:03,715 --> 01:08:07,735
That was miserable because there were 10 cars in the parking lot sometimes waiting on you.

1120
01:08:07,875 --> 01:08:12,375
So when you walked in that door and you had lunch, you kind of took a little

1121
01:08:12,375 --> 01:08:14,195
nap maybe or you got lazy a little bit.

1122
01:08:14,255 --> 01:08:17,575
So you're kind of like trying to fumble your way through it and you had to roll.

1123
01:08:17,775 --> 01:08:20,275
I mean, you didn't want people waiting because they already had been waiting.

1124
01:08:20,695 --> 01:08:23,555
Not every time, but there was a lot of times there were plenty of people waiting.

1125
01:08:23,715 --> 01:08:25,575
And that's kind of why I got rid of the lunches.

1126
01:08:25,935 --> 01:08:30,075
I started just – I cut the hours back when I took over and got rid of the lunch

1127
01:08:30,075 --> 01:08:31,855
hour because of that mostly.

1128
01:08:31,935 --> 01:08:35,955
And just started alternating the lunch hour. Yeah, and that's still what we do today.

1129
01:08:37,495 --> 01:08:42,775
Man, speaking of naps, some of my earliest memories here were,

1130
01:08:42,955 --> 01:08:47,135
you know, I'm assuming high school, junior high time.

1131
01:08:48,155 --> 01:08:55,895
And you and Uncle John were here. And sometimes I would go with you for lunch,

1132
01:08:56,035 --> 01:08:58,155
and sometimes I would go with him. Okay.

1133
01:08:58,455 --> 01:09:03,095
And I just remember jumping in your truck, heading to your house.

1134
01:09:03,095 --> 01:09:06,675
I don't know what we were getting, maybe grab a Subway or something or make

1135
01:09:06,675 --> 01:09:11,135
a sandwich at home, take a nap, head back over here, do the same thing with

1136
01:09:11,135 --> 01:09:13,375
Uncle John, go to his house. He'd do the same. Take a nap.

1137
01:09:13,695 --> 01:09:17,335
We'd lay on the couch, take a nap, come back. And then I did the same thing

1138
01:09:17,335 --> 01:09:20,655
with Pawpaw. I remember coming over. That's where we got it from.

1139
01:09:20,835 --> 01:09:24,555
I would head to Pawpaw's with him and lay on the couch, take a nap.

1140
01:09:24,575 --> 01:09:27,375
He'd put on whatever kind of, you know, whatever he was watching on TV.

1141
01:09:27,615 --> 01:09:29,315
Yeah, he'd throw something on TV. I think that'd help him go to sleep a little

1142
01:09:29,315 --> 01:09:33,015
bit, get his mind off of it. We take a nap and then, and then come back.

1143
01:09:33,155 --> 01:09:34,795
Okay. So let me ask you this.

1144
01:09:36,209 --> 01:09:40,169
We know which chair he was in. Right. How did he nap? What did he do?

1145
01:09:41,089 --> 01:09:45,249
Do you remember anything specific? He would usually, if he made him a sandwich

1146
01:09:45,249 --> 01:09:46,989
or more. No, no, no, the nap, the nap.

1147
01:09:47,149 --> 01:09:49,349
Well, it includes the lunch.

1148
01:09:49,529 --> 01:09:53,389
The nap and the lunch are one.

1149
01:09:53,729 --> 01:09:57,089
Because the sandwich would be half eaten on his chest.

1150
01:09:57,589 --> 01:10:02,649
The feet would be up. He'd be reclined back out cold with crumbs everywhere.

1151
01:10:03,449 --> 01:10:07,409
And most of the change would have fell out of his pockets. And went into the chair.

1152
01:10:07,569 --> 01:10:11,329
And I would just, I would either be napping or I'd be waiting for him to get

1153
01:10:11,329 --> 01:10:13,729
up so I could check underneath the chair and collect the change.

1154
01:10:14,589 --> 01:10:18,289
So do you remember, I don't know why I remember this, but often,

1155
01:10:18,429 --> 01:10:20,309
I don't know if he, I'm pretty sure he did it every time.

1156
01:10:20,629 --> 01:10:24,489
So the curtains were behind him. You remember him taking the curtain strings

1157
01:10:24,489 --> 01:10:27,589
and wrapping around his head some, a bunch of times to sleep?

1158
01:10:28,049 --> 01:10:31,049
You remember that? No. That might've been before your time.

1159
01:10:31,249 --> 01:10:33,949
So the chair leaned back and it was right up against the

1160
01:10:33,949 --> 01:10:37,129
wall where the curtains were were open right there and you know the drawstring

1161
01:10:37,129 --> 01:10:39,989
curtain he'd take and wrap it around his head kind

1162
01:10:39,989 --> 01:10:42,669
of a certain way where his it would cock his head a certain way i

1163
01:10:42,669 --> 01:10:45,429
think yeah yeah a little headrest i thought

1164
01:10:45,429 --> 01:10:48,149
i thought you would have noticed that ingenuity maybe he wasn't doing it then at the

1165
01:10:48,149 --> 01:10:51,409
time or it might be mama changed your curtains then i'm not sure but yeah he

1166
01:10:51,409 --> 01:10:55,309
did that a lot too that's something i remember ingenuity but yeah i bet you

1167
01:10:55,309 --> 01:11:00,709
three four days a week he did peanut butter jelly pbj we often we often did

1168
01:11:00,709 --> 01:11:06,209
a little piece you know maybe a a half pound of jalapeno sausage.

1169
01:11:06,689 --> 01:11:12,509
Really? Out the casing, just fried up in a skillet on white bread with mayonnaise.

1170
01:11:12,749 --> 01:11:16,469
Okay, yeah. We did that often. When I ate lunch there. And when he did eat something

1171
01:11:16,469 --> 01:11:19,889
like that, a lot of times he did a little fold over with the PBJ.

1172
01:11:20,269 --> 01:11:24,529
Sure. Yeah, he'd do a little fold over. Or just like his dessert. Just PB.

1173
01:11:25,189 --> 01:11:31,429
Oh. PB. Okay. Peanut butter sugar sometimes. Yeah. You like the little sugar crunch.

1174
01:11:33,049 --> 01:11:37,929
But yeah so i remember that was one of my earliest memories and then one of my most,

1175
01:11:38,889 --> 01:11:42,329
significant memories was the time

1176
01:11:42,329 --> 01:11:48,489
me and benson were vacuum packing in the dungeon we had so we'd move the vacuum

1177
01:11:48,489 --> 01:11:51,969
pack machines from the middle room to the dungeon this has something to do with

1178
01:11:51,969 --> 01:11:57,529
me i bet yes so me and benson are in the dungeon and we're vacuum packing and

1179
01:11:57,529 --> 01:11:59,349
we have was i having Was I having a good day?

1180
01:11:59,589 --> 01:12:02,569
Probably had one machine back then, right? Yeah, probably. Was I having a good day?

1181
01:12:03,329 --> 01:12:07,149
Oh no, not after you came to the dungeon. You sure you want to say this story?

1182
01:12:07,309 --> 01:12:10,629
Oh yeah. Okay. Not after you came to the dungeon. Oh, okay. What would y'all do?

1183
01:12:10,929 --> 01:12:15,749
So me and Benson are going, Benson, you know, Benson must be in high school

1184
01:12:15,749 --> 01:12:19,369
and I must be in junior high. So Benson might maybe 17, 18.

1185
01:12:19,529 --> 01:12:22,889
I'm probably 14, 15, if that's close.

1186
01:12:24,920 --> 01:12:29,680
We got an assembly line going on. So to vacuum pack, you weigh out the beef

1187
01:12:29,680 --> 01:12:35,060
jerky, you put it on a paper, you wrap the paper, you stick it into the vacuum bag, and it's nice.

1188
01:12:35,240 --> 01:12:37,740
And then you drop that into the vacuum seal machine.

1189
01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:39,760
Well, we had two of us with not

1190
01:12:39,760 --> 01:12:44,180
enough to do, so what we did is we created more to do. But in our minds.

1191
01:12:44,640 --> 01:12:49,380
Yeah, y'all working faster. We invented a new process. We're evolving.

1192
01:12:49,900 --> 01:12:53,240
That's what we were doing. Y'all were being entrepreneurs. And we were going

1193
01:12:53,240 --> 01:12:59,040
way faster, okay? Okay, so Benson would seal up the jerky, and we created this

1194
01:12:59,040 --> 01:13:01,120
big ramp out of cardboard boxes.

1195
01:13:01,180 --> 01:13:07,180
We cut up some cardboard boxes, and we made maybe a three-level ramp.

1196
01:13:07,480 --> 01:13:10,060
It would turn. It did like a big S-curve.

1197
01:13:10,540 --> 01:13:13,740
And we either stapled or duct-taped them together.

1198
01:13:14,240 --> 01:13:20,360
Well, we put it from the top shelf, and then I had the vacuum machine on the ground.

1199
01:13:20,520 --> 01:13:23,180
So I'm sitting on my butt. I really don't remember this, but this is getting

1200
01:13:23,180 --> 01:13:29,500
good. Yeah, I'm sitting on my butt, and there's a big S-curve slide leading from Benson to me.

1201
01:13:29,860 --> 01:13:34,300
So Benson would bag up the jerky, and he would take—this is so Benson wouldn't

1202
01:13:34,300 --> 01:13:35,400
have to turn around, by the way.

1203
01:13:36,380 --> 01:13:40,180
So Benson would be standing straight. He would fill the bag with the jerky,

1204
01:13:40,260 --> 01:13:43,840
and then he would bring it like this and then just drop it right beside him.

1205
01:13:43,860 --> 01:13:48,320
And it would go down the slide to me where I would grab it and put it on the vacuum machine.

1206
01:13:49,820 --> 01:13:53,820
So we had did this for who knows how long. It could be all day.

1207
01:13:54,100 --> 01:13:57,440
You know, it would probably be Christmas time, something like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1208
01:13:57,560 --> 01:14:03,680
So we had been doing this all day, and we're proud of it, and we're not afraid

1209
01:14:03,680 --> 01:14:07,120
to tell people what we've created and show them the process.

1210
01:14:07,460 --> 01:14:11,980
And you had come back there, and you had seen what was going on,

1211
01:14:12,100 --> 01:14:15,120
and we were still—keep in mind, we were still proud of it. I wish I remembered

1212
01:14:15,120 --> 01:14:16,620
this. I just don't remember it. Still proud of it.

1213
01:14:17,180 --> 01:14:19,980
So we wanted to show you what we had created. so we showed you

1214
01:14:19,980 --> 01:14:22,780
boom boom boom boom boom and you you kind of

1215
01:14:22,780 --> 01:14:25,840
were like okay that's cool so how many totes

1216
01:14:25,840 --> 01:14:30,980
did you do so we you know we were also proud of the totes you did that we did

1217
01:14:30,980 --> 01:14:36,300
so we counted the totes and we told you whatever you know six six totes and

1218
01:14:36,300 --> 01:14:40,760
you're like six totes okay so let's see and you grab the paper and you just

1219
01:14:40,760 --> 01:14:45,000
did some math so i love numbers you did some math I love numbers.

1220
01:14:45,400 --> 01:14:49,540
And you broke down what it normally should take versus what it took us.

1221
01:14:49,700 --> 01:14:52,340
Well, y'all didn't figure in the hour it took to build the slide.

1222
01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:59,140
You did all that on paper and you showed us, you said, all right, it's cool, but listen,

1223
01:14:59,800 --> 01:15:02,940
for every, I don't know if you broke it down by the hour or by the pack,

1224
01:15:03,080 --> 01:15:08,080
maybe you said, from every pack that y'all have packed so far,

1225
01:15:08,180 --> 01:15:10,360
you lost about 20 cents on each pack.

1226
01:15:11,453 --> 01:15:18,033
With the slide and then you just left and it

1227
01:15:18,033 --> 01:15:21,313
threw a big wrench into things i really don't remember the slide but i can see

1228
01:15:21,313 --> 01:15:26,113
me doing what i did with the numbers it threw a big wrench into things and obviously

1229
01:15:26,113 --> 01:15:30,773
you know we didn't see it that way we were we were more proud of the invention

1230
01:15:30,773 --> 01:15:34,273
and we really thought we were doing a great thing but but we weren't i busted

1231
01:15:34,273 --> 01:15:37,693
your bubble and But it did stick with me.

1232
01:15:37,773 --> 01:15:42,273
And if I told you I didn't do that same thing.

1233
01:15:42,753 --> 01:15:47,093
With your workers now? Five times in the past 10 years, I'd be lying.

1234
01:15:48,253 --> 01:15:53,853
And I just knew what to do. And I knew how to handle it because that's how you

1235
01:15:53,853 --> 01:15:55,273
handled it. And it worked.

1236
01:15:55,653 --> 01:15:57,633
Right? And it worked. I guess it did. And now.

1237
01:15:58,173 --> 01:16:01,173
If I'm in a bad mood, I didn't do too good with people, unfortunately.

1238
01:16:01,893 --> 01:16:08,113
And now I know that Mark can do the same thing with the high,

1239
01:16:08,213 --> 01:16:11,253
you know, if we get two high schoolers in, Mark can do the same thing.

1240
01:16:11,313 --> 01:16:13,333
Oh, that's nice. That's good. But it's just one of those things.

1241
01:16:13,533 --> 01:16:17,133
It's the things you don't think about that are most impactful.

1242
01:16:17,133 --> 01:16:18,473
You know where that came from, Shane?

1243
01:16:18,633 --> 01:16:21,493
I don't know why, but it fascinated me. I think high school,

1244
01:16:21,733 --> 01:16:24,093
what was the class you had to take in high school?

1245
01:16:24,353 --> 01:16:26,673
Not English. No, no, no. Not English.

1246
01:16:27,593 --> 01:16:30,593
Civics. Was it civics? It might have been college.

1247
01:16:31,073 --> 01:16:35,693
Economics. When I learned about, I forget which class, but anyway,

1248
01:16:35,753 --> 01:16:39,173
you learned about assembly lines. Okay. And the efficiency of them.

1249
01:16:39,993 --> 01:16:44,913
That fascinated me. And I was in numbers. I love numbers. I was very good with numbers, very fast.

1250
01:16:45,153 --> 01:16:49,153
I mean, I didn't use a calculator in here for years. I did tax everything in

1251
01:16:49,153 --> 01:16:53,773
my head, whether it was 2% was real easy, but when it started going to two and

1252
01:16:53,773 --> 01:16:56,153
a quarter and three and a quarter, three and a half, three and three quarters,

1253
01:16:56,233 --> 01:16:59,293
stuff like that, it would take me an extra second or so to figure it out.

1254
01:16:59,293 --> 01:17:02,713
But I did in my head all those years up until we got these dummy up,

1255
01:17:02,813 --> 01:17:05,933
these scales and all, which is nice. Don't get me wrong.

1256
01:17:06,133 --> 01:17:10,473
But yeah, I figured tax in my head. And in fact, my CPA always said,

1257
01:17:10,593 --> 01:17:14,133
I would race with him sometimes with numbers and I'd beat him every time.

1258
01:17:14,173 --> 01:17:16,613
If he had a calculator and I did it in my head, I'd beat him every time with

1259
01:17:16,613 --> 01:17:18,653
big numbers and percentages and stuff.

1260
01:17:19,193 --> 01:17:22,933
But it's just something that I was good at and I liked. I liked numbers and

1261
01:17:22,933 --> 01:17:24,833
I liked just playing with them.

1262
01:17:25,593 --> 01:17:29,073
But I liked efficiency. Efficiency. I like, even in my life,

1263
01:17:29,313 --> 01:17:30,873
I always try to be efficient.

1264
01:17:30,993 --> 01:17:35,553
Whatever I did, I hate, drives me nuts to be redundant and have to do something

1265
01:17:35,553 --> 01:17:42,013
over or to see someone do something and have to do it over because just do it

1266
01:17:42,013 --> 01:17:45,093
right the first time, you know, you don't need to screw it up.

1267
01:17:45,233 --> 01:17:50,433
And, you know, we've had workers over the year that want to try to change something

1268
01:17:50,433 --> 01:17:53,993
that we've done for, you know, and they asked me like, why y'all do it that way?

1269
01:17:54,073 --> 01:17:57,333
I'm like, that's the way I was taught. it, but that wasn't a good enough answer for them.

1270
01:17:57,733 --> 01:18:02,713
They wanted to do it their own way, which was slower, not nearly as efficient,

1271
01:18:02,813 --> 01:18:07,213
and just not the way I wanted it, and it would aggravate the fool out of me.

1272
01:18:09,239 --> 01:18:13,959
I mean, that's how we operate today. You know, the kind of way we taught the

1273
01:18:13,959 --> 01:18:17,319
guys is, look, here's the way we had to learn it because we want it to be just

1274
01:18:17,319 --> 01:18:19,359
like Uncle Donald. We want it to be just like Papa.

1275
01:18:20,059 --> 01:18:23,439
We did it the same way. We sharpened the knife the same. We sharpened the knife

1276
01:18:23,439 --> 01:18:27,759
with the steel facing up like this. We don't put it down and do like this.

1277
01:18:28,459 --> 01:18:31,819
Why? Because they didn't. That's the way we did it. Yeah, that's the only way

1278
01:18:31,819 --> 01:18:32,659
I learned. That's the way I learned.

1279
01:18:32,679 --> 01:18:36,779
Can you do it like that and get it sharper than I can?

1280
01:18:36,939 --> 01:18:39,659
Probably not. but hey if you're

1281
01:18:39,659 --> 01:18:42,879
here for five years ten years and and

1282
01:18:42,879 --> 01:18:45,999
you prove yourself that you can sharpen you

1283
01:18:45,999 --> 01:18:48,859
can sharpen it the way i taught you yeah just like

1284
01:18:48,859 --> 01:18:53,139
i taught you and you can do it your own special way now you get to do it your

1285
01:18:53,139 --> 01:18:55,819
own special way i mean growing up in this place i wasn't allowed to sharpen

1286
01:18:55,819 --> 01:19:00,519
a knife for a long time long time you know yeah because i mean they're expensive

1287
01:19:00,519 --> 01:19:06,339
and you can grind on them and it costs some money and then when i did was able to sharpen Did I look?

1288
01:19:06,399 --> 01:19:10,759
Yeah, when I was able to sharpen a knife on my own, it was the oldest one out there.

1289
01:19:10,859 --> 01:19:13,699
Right. I wasn't allowed to touch it. And we still, I mean, we still do that

1290
01:19:13,699 --> 01:19:18,299
because it's the idea of, it's not about the knife being sharpened.

1291
01:19:18,299 --> 01:19:19,999
It's about, can you learn? Yeah.

1292
01:19:20,399 --> 01:19:25,319
Are you a learner? Yeah. Can you listen? Can you just pay attention?

1293
01:19:25,579 --> 01:19:26,979
Yeah. The details. Details.

1294
01:19:27,479 --> 01:19:31,879
We still do it that way. And then we have no problem recognizing when,

1295
01:19:31,979 --> 01:19:33,939
hey, you do it just like I do.

1296
01:19:34,119 --> 01:19:40,119
Yeah. It's as sharp as I can get it. Now come up with your own special way to do it.

1297
01:19:40,439 --> 01:19:44,059
But when the new guy comes, you're going to teach him the way Mr.

1298
01:19:44,059 --> 01:19:47,579
Cleave sharpened a knife. Because that's what we want it to look like.

1299
01:19:47,799 --> 01:19:50,739
It's not just about the function of the knife.

1300
01:19:50,819 --> 01:19:55,839
It's about I want to be able to imagine what the person across the counter sees.

1301
01:19:56,379 --> 01:20:02,899
And to me, the coolest thing to look at is a butcher with the handle and like this.

1302
01:20:02,899 --> 01:20:05,979
That's that's what looks the coolest never

1303
01:20:05,979 --> 01:20:11,799
thought about this crap when you put this the tip of the stone on the table

1304
01:20:11,799 --> 01:20:15,539
and you know like a chef might yeah yeah it's funny that chef's kind of that's

1305
01:20:15,539 --> 01:20:18,679
how to do it i've never thought about it but yeah i guess if nothing else other

1306
01:20:18,679 --> 01:20:23,479
than it doesn't look cool then we're sticking with that until you can do it this way yeah,

1307
01:20:25,039 --> 01:20:30,159
yeah never never thought about that at all so all right back to kind of getting

1308
01:20:30,159 --> 01:20:32,599
to where but Bo's coming into the picture.

1309
01:20:32,779 --> 01:20:37,239
Okay. Yeah, so yeah, I would, I purposely would kind of just not show up.

1310
01:20:37,599 --> 01:20:39,959
You know, I didn't do it often, but, you know, I did it, especially towards

1311
01:20:39,959 --> 01:20:42,139
the end, the last few months. I was kind of doing it regularly.

1312
01:20:44,267 --> 01:20:49,107
He passed the test. And Bo got started with the website.

1313
01:20:49,607 --> 01:20:53,387
I don't necessarily know what year that kind of stuff started.

1314
01:20:53,587 --> 01:20:56,187
Was I still here? I believe so, yeah. He would maybe know.

1315
01:20:56,967 --> 01:21:01,587
I don't know. And how did things change for that transition?

1316
01:21:02,287 --> 01:21:05,387
That had to be right towards the end, Shane. I'm not sure if we had.

1317
01:21:05,447 --> 01:21:11,107
Not the online, but the changeover sort of. Oh, between me and him? Yes.

1318
01:21:12,747 --> 01:21:16,907
I don't know if I did it right, but I did it. Right. I pretty much did like

1319
01:21:16,907 --> 01:21:19,067
my dad, kind of, honestly, in the end.

1320
01:21:19,747 --> 01:21:23,707
Now, granted, he didn't give me breaks like I gave Bo, like not showing up.

1321
01:21:23,727 --> 01:21:26,047
That kind of prepares you a little bit of me not being here.

1322
01:21:27,167 --> 01:21:31,227
So I did give him that, but yeah, when papers were done and it was time for

1323
01:21:31,227 --> 01:21:32,427
me not to show up, I didn't show up.

1324
01:21:32,947 --> 01:21:35,627
Kind of like, here you go. Yeah. I never heard him complain.

1325
01:21:36,587 --> 01:21:42,387
Yeah. To my knowledge. And look, I know it wasn't easy because I went through it too. I did the same.

1326
01:21:42,647 --> 01:21:46,287
But I did have a brother to go through it with. Right. When did you come in?

1327
01:21:46,527 --> 01:21:48,227
Were you there then? Not yet, huh?

1328
01:21:48,967 --> 01:21:52,367
Yeah. You were working before I left? Yeah, you were still here.

1329
01:21:52,747 --> 01:21:57,567
Okay. All right. I wasn't sure if you had come in yet or it was after. You were still here.

1330
01:21:57,907 --> 01:22:04,247
From what I remember, Bo was more than capable for long before that.

1331
01:22:04,527 --> 01:22:07,727
Yeah. You know? You know, I just, I didn't want him to do this.

1332
01:22:08,207 --> 01:22:11,307
And I told him, and he'll affirm this. I told him, I said, look,

1333
01:22:11,347 --> 01:22:14,707
Bo, this place makes plenty of money. I mean, it's, you know,

1334
01:22:14,767 --> 01:22:15,767
you're going to do well here.

1335
01:22:16,267 --> 01:22:20,167
I said, but if you do it for the money, it won't make it. It will not make it.

1336
01:22:20,207 --> 01:22:21,487
It won't make the next generation.

1337
01:22:22,807 --> 01:22:26,727
And you have to love, and I loved what I did. I mean, I loved what I did.

1338
01:22:26,767 --> 01:22:29,307
I just, I was hoping that he would love it as much as I did.

1339
01:22:29,447 --> 01:22:33,387
So, yeah, and I've been very, very pleased to see that he definitely has the

1340
01:22:33,387 --> 01:22:34,867
work ethic and he definitely loves it.

1341
01:22:35,427 --> 01:22:39,547
Never been as much as I did, I think. So, yeah, I've been proud and very,

1342
01:22:39,667 --> 01:22:45,087
very just fulfilled, I guess, seeing that happen, really. For sure. Me personally.

1343
01:22:46,687 --> 01:22:50,387
It's a different animal in here. It is. It's gotten to be because,

1344
01:22:50,487 --> 01:22:52,567
and I knew it would be, and that's why I got out of the way.

1345
01:22:53,927 --> 01:22:58,667
Because with Bo here, even the last couple of years, we'd added on that little

1346
01:22:58,667 --> 01:23:02,267
addition with the Boudin Burritos, which was a great little thing.

1347
01:23:02,807 --> 01:23:06,467
But we had to hire more workers. And that's what my issue was. I kept it small.

1348
01:23:07,047 --> 01:23:10,647
I don't know how the customers like it. But, I mean, when I got to where I just

1349
01:23:10,647 --> 01:23:13,067
couldn't keep up. And, look, we worked hard, all my workers.

1350
01:23:13,167 --> 01:23:17,067
They worked hard, worked long hours and worked fast as we could.

1351
01:23:17,767 --> 01:23:19,147
And when we got to where we just

1352
01:23:19,147 --> 01:23:22,447
couldn't keep up anymore and we just had enough, I just went up on prices.

1353
01:23:22,647 --> 01:23:27,127
In business school, you learn, take some economics classes, supply and demand.

1354
01:23:27,807 --> 01:23:31,627
So I figured, you know what, I need to go up. And usually when I did go up on

1355
01:23:31,627 --> 01:23:35,707
prices, I tried to pass it on to my workers. You know, I'd give them a raise also.

1356
01:23:36,487 --> 01:23:38,847
So, and that's, you know, that's just kind of how I did things.

1357
01:23:39,955 --> 01:23:43,695
I know I got a little expensive with things probably over the years. I didn't want to do that.

1358
01:23:43,715 --> 01:23:46,335
I didn't want that image, but I kind of had to just because,

1359
01:23:46,475 --> 01:23:48,575
I mean, physically, there's only so much you can do.

1360
01:23:48,775 --> 01:23:52,475
And the way we make it, it's a physical job. There's not a fast way to do it.

1361
01:23:52,535 --> 01:23:56,175
So, you know, unfortunately, we had to charge more for things.

1362
01:23:56,355 --> 01:23:59,695
And just because of supply and demand, there's only so much I could make,

1363
01:23:59,835 --> 01:24:01,775
especially with the facility you got here.

1364
01:24:01,875 --> 01:24:04,915
I mean, you've been in here with 30 people. You can't hardly move.

1365
01:24:05,175 --> 01:24:07,655
Right. You know, nine, 10 workers

1366
01:24:07,655 --> 01:24:11,055
is probably optimal for the size of this building. you know, maybe 12 max.

1367
01:24:11,315 --> 01:24:14,815
And that's what we were, I think, when we did that addition before I left,

1368
01:24:14,855 --> 01:24:16,515
we had about 15 or 17 maybe.

1369
01:24:17,135 --> 01:24:20,555
And I mean, when it comes to workers, their problems are your problems and it

1370
01:24:20,555 --> 01:24:22,475
starts wearing on you, especially when you get older, you know,

1371
01:24:22,495 --> 01:24:23,235
you get a little more grouchy.

1372
01:24:23,315 --> 01:24:26,375
And that's really one of the reasons why I got out quite as young as I did.

1373
01:24:26,515 --> 01:24:29,575
I probably got out a little too young, but I needed to get out of Bo's way.

1374
01:24:29,635 --> 01:24:32,055
I know he was ready to expand and do the new location.

1375
01:24:32,675 --> 01:24:36,635
And I didn't want nothing to do with that. And he wanted to grow the business.

1376
01:24:36,635 --> 01:24:38,295
And I was there before. I was there with Daddy.

1377
01:24:38,415 --> 01:24:43,275
I was ready to expand and do things that he didn't want to do with the jerky, stuff like that.

1378
01:24:43,435 --> 01:24:47,175
So, you know, Daddy got out of my way. I wanted to get out of his way,

1379
01:24:47,195 --> 01:24:49,455
basically. Nice. And let him do what he needed to do. Because,

1380
01:24:49,535 --> 01:24:51,395
you know, I was there before. I've been there.

1381
01:24:51,695 --> 01:24:59,575
Well, I do know this. So, last year, 2023, I believe...

1382
01:25:00,886 --> 01:25:05,686
So you said you had 18 in here? At the most, probably 15.

1383
01:25:06,206 --> 01:25:11,066
I don't know. You know, yeah. And the tenure back then was a lot longer.

1384
01:25:11,126 --> 01:25:16,606
You had some 15, some long term. I had a core of six people in here.

1385
01:25:16,666 --> 01:25:17,886
I had been in here for a long time.

1386
01:25:19,166 --> 01:25:24,126
So think about jumping from that to in 2023. And that was starting to happen,

1387
01:25:24,246 --> 01:25:26,466
what you're talking about, the turnover of workers.

1388
01:25:26,646 --> 01:25:30,106
Yep. in 2023 between both

1389
01:25:30,106 --> 01:25:33,286
locations we had and that was our first year with

1390
01:25:33,286 --> 01:25:36,026
the with the new market opening up in march so between

1391
01:25:36,026 --> 01:25:44,266
both locations i think we had 120 w2s oh and that's an astronaut and that that's

1392
01:25:44,266 --> 01:25:48,826
what i say by it's a different animal and it forces you into places that you

1393
01:25:48,826 --> 01:25:53,086
don't you don't understand where you're going yeah i can see when it's when

1394
01:25:53,086 --> 01:25:54,926
it's fun to run running the meat market.

1395
01:25:55,566 --> 01:25:58,906
That's not fun. A meat market. That's not fun. It's not a meat market anymore,

1396
01:25:59,006 --> 01:26:00,606
it's a people market, you know? Exactly.

1397
01:26:00,946 --> 01:26:03,746
It's people and that's what. That's the hardest part.

1398
01:26:03,826 --> 01:26:05,766
That's the hardest part. That's the hardest part. And there's no,

1399
01:26:06,086 --> 01:26:11,806
you know, the hard thing about it is we know how to do all the meat stuff from you guys.

1400
01:26:11,846 --> 01:26:16,406
You wrote the book on it and we can follow it to the T. That's the easy part.

1401
01:26:16,626 --> 01:26:21,426
We can mimic it, but there's no one to tell us, there's no one to tell us what

1402
01:26:21,426 --> 01:26:24,766
to do with 50 people, with a hundred people.

1403
01:26:24,866 --> 01:26:29,186
Yeah. So it's a lot of- Logistics and- Man, it's a lot of just trying.

1404
01:26:29,326 --> 01:26:32,266
We're just trying and we're just taking the best ideas we have.

1405
01:26:32,646 --> 01:26:37,866
Well, Bo, no doubt about it, he's a totally different owner from me as far as

1406
01:26:37,866 --> 01:26:41,606
his skills, his leadership skills and all. But-

1407
01:26:42,755 --> 01:26:46,475
To take it where y'all at now, I don't have those skills. Bo does.

1408
01:26:46,695 --> 01:26:50,415
But there's no doubt in my mind, Bo has the skills to be where you're at. Well, and we don't.

1409
01:26:50,455 --> 01:26:53,775
We're totally different owners, totally different philosophies and all,

1410
01:26:53,875 --> 01:26:57,915
but to be where you're at now, he's the right one.

1411
01:26:58,235 --> 01:27:02,055
There's no doubt in my mind. No doubt. And you two. I mean, both of y'all.

1412
01:27:02,495 --> 01:27:07,035
Y'all compliment each other. Here's what I learned quickly here is that,

1413
01:27:07,055 --> 01:27:09,895
man, there's a lot that we don't have. There's a lot that we don't have,

1414
01:27:10,055 --> 01:27:14,595
you know, me and Bo work excellent in a team because we're so different.

1415
01:27:14,715 --> 01:27:19,295
We are very, very different when it comes to how we analyze stuff or problems,

1416
01:27:19,435 --> 01:27:22,255
just problem solving. Okay. Yeah. We're very, very different.

1417
01:27:22,735 --> 01:27:26,975
I'm the, I'm a creative type. Yeah. I want to give you a bunch of crazy ideas.

1418
01:27:27,135 --> 01:27:31,755
Yeah. Bo is going to take one and he's going to go, all right,

1419
01:27:31,775 --> 01:27:33,935
if we go with that idea, what is step one?

1420
01:27:34,215 --> 01:27:39,255
If we can't complete step one, then ditch the idea. But I'm the type where I

1421
01:27:39,255 --> 01:27:41,715
give you the crazy idea and Bo says, okay, here's step one.

1422
01:27:42,135 --> 01:27:45,575
I'm going to give you 10 crazy ideas for step one. And Bo's going to go,

1423
01:27:45,695 --> 01:27:48,395
no, it's unreasonable. Pass.

1424
01:27:49,835 --> 01:27:53,495
He's linear. And he's, yeah, that's how kind of you need to be with new ideas.

1425
01:27:53,655 --> 01:27:55,055
Yeah, yeah. And that's me.

1426
01:27:55,235 --> 01:27:59,075
So it's perfect. We really make a perfect team. You have great ideas and he

1427
01:27:59,075 --> 01:28:01,835
takes them and makes them analytical is what happens. And he finishes them.

1428
01:28:02,475 --> 01:28:05,335
He's a finisher. He can make the map of the idea. Yeah.

1429
01:28:05,675 --> 01:28:09,035
I love it. There's so much we can't do and we have hired for,

1430
01:28:09,155 --> 01:28:13,395
and, and all, all the people that are special here now, they,

1431
01:28:13,515 --> 01:28:16,535
they can all do things that we don't have a clue how to do. Gotcha.

1432
01:28:16,755 --> 01:28:20,935
And it's, it's scary and it's hard. Yeah. And I, I imagine that's where it's

1433
01:28:20,935 --> 01:28:23,815
never been before, where it's that, it's a trust, you know?

1434
01:28:24,155 --> 01:28:26,555
Yeah. Cause y'all, y'all got stuff going on.

1435
01:28:27,075 --> 01:28:30,155
I understand. I understand. Cause I was a control freak. Okay.

1436
01:28:30,575 --> 01:28:33,595
I'm a, I'm a type A, not type A, but I'm a control. I liked,

1437
01:28:33,635 --> 01:28:35,875
I'm a control freak, I guess.

1438
01:28:35,895 --> 01:28:40,575
Right. I'm a, what you call that, a control freak. I like to be in control.

1439
01:28:42,015 --> 01:28:46,555
And if you're doing something like, I know some of your workers do stuff that,

1440
01:28:46,575 --> 01:28:50,475
I have an idea who you, several of them who you're talking about, and I understand that.

1441
01:28:50,955 --> 01:28:55,195
So my fear with that is, what do you do when they leave? If they leave,

1442
01:28:55,355 --> 01:28:58,635
do they get pissed off or whatever? You know, things happen in life. You know what I do?

1443
01:28:59,135 --> 01:29:02,835
That's what scares me. I learn from them just like, I don't take any- Because

1444
01:29:02,835 --> 01:29:06,495
you got to teach the next person. And if you don't know it, how do you teach them?

1445
01:29:06,575 --> 01:29:13,195
Man, I've learned so much, you know, from our, you know, our hub crew, our guys.

1446
01:29:13,315 --> 01:29:16,095
You know who they are. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've learned so much from those guys

1447
01:29:16,095 --> 01:29:19,615
that a lot of that stuff is invaluable. Yeah. You know?

1448
01:29:20,135 --> 01:29:23,795
Yeah. And I never had that issue because it's a big business now,

1449
01:29:23,895 --> 01:29:27,975
man. Right. It's the workers. Like you said, it's the workers that made it a big business.

1450
01:29:28,135 --> 01:29:32,535
And it's a lot to it. You know, all the insurances and, you know,

1451
01:29:32,535 --> 01:29:34,835
just, whew, it's a lot. So.

1452
01:29:36,300 --> 01:29:41,780
You're talking about popping at the seams earlier. Here's a number you don't know about. Okay.

1453
01:29:41,920 --> 01:29:48,620
So we go from Chick Bro buying some jerky and stuff, and that was in 1990-ish.

1454
01:29:48,840 --> 01:29:52,820
Five-ish. 95-ish. Six, seven, I don't know, somewhere in the mid-90s.

1455
01:29:52,820 --> 01:29:57,280
So we're going to fast forward to 2023.

1456
01:29:57,800 --> 01:30:06,000
Okay. where we sold online only, just online orders, not through the door,

1457
01:30:06,660 --> 01:30:11,240
not the thousands of pounds we donate to everywhere in Thibodeau.

1458
01:30:11,500 --> 01:30:17,760
Just online, we sold 6,500 pounds of beef jerky through the mail.

1459
01:30:18,460 --> 01:30:21,260
Only online orders, not phone orders. Yeah, yeah.

1460
01:30:21,400 --> 01:30:25,340
So can you think about, really, really think about that. Like,

1461
01:30:25,440 --> 01:30:29,280
think about you at 20 years old talking to Chick Bro. 120 pounds a week.

1462
01:30:29,480 --> 01:30:35,040
All right. Think about you, you know, talking to Chick Bro about making a little

1463
01:30:35,040 --> 01:30:37,740
batch, and then that's where it is now.

1464
01:30:37,880 --> 01:30:41,220
Yeah. You know, so what do you think about 20 years from now?

1465
01:30:42,080 --> 01:30:46,000
You know, honestly, I don't know if it can grow. I guess it can grow because

1466
01:30:46,000 --> 01:30:50,100
of the internet, but locally it can't grow a whole lot more because you only

1467
01:30:50,100 --> 01:30:51,220
got so many people around here.

1468
01:30:51,340 --> 01:30:54,560
Okay. And you get tired. I mean, anything you eat, you get tired of eating it.

1469
01:30:54,680 --> 01:30:57,960
Sure. You know, now you come back around to it maybe after a few years if you

1470
01:30:57,960 --> 01:31:02,240
didn't buy any. Right. The jerky, it's a luxury. It's a novelty item. Yeah, absolutely.

1471
01:31:02,580 --> 01:31:05,700
And it's good. Don't get me wrong. It's very good. Regardless of how good it

1472
01:31:05,700 --> 01:31:10,440
is, anything in life, I mean, too much fun is not fun.

1473
01:31:11,640 --> 01:31:15,220
Same thing with food, you know. Much as you like a good, good steak,

1474
01:31:15,320 --> 01:31:16,160
you can't eat it every day.

1475
01:31:17,120 --> 01:31:20,320
So, yeah, I mean, that's really the only place to grow, really,

1476
01:31:20,380 --> 01:31:23,620
with the jerky is there, you know, online.

1477
01:31:23,620 --> 01:31:28,060
Line we're doing these we're gonna start hitting these you know trade shows

1478
01:31:28,060 --> 01:31:32,100
yeah yeah i saw y'all been doing pretty hard and we've only done really local

1479
01:31:32,100 --> 01:31:34,880
baton rouge uh new orleans mississippi,

1480
01:31:35,680 --> 01:31:40,840
i'm very interested in reaching out to texas like houston and maybe arkansas

1481
01:31:40,840 --> 01:31:46,360
and florida things like that so with the trade shows just to get houston livestock

1482
01:31:46,360 --> 01:31:51,040
yeah things like that two whole weeks sure things like that that we have no

1483
01:31:51,040 --> 01:31:53,700
business you better start making it now now.

1484
01:31:54,360 --> 01:31:59,800
But seriously, those things, those shows are super, super beneficial.

1485
01:32:00,020 --> 01:32:03,160
And not just because of- So the ones you've done, you get a lot of- Oh, man.

1486
01:32:03,780 --> 01:32:06,300
People coming in behind you. The feedback we get is incredible,

1487
01:32:06,400 --> 01:32:09,620
man. That's awesome. We did a few early on. Yeah, we did a few.

1488
01:32:09,780 --> 01:32:12,000
The fun thing about it is that- They were fun.

1489
01:32:12,180 --> 01:32:15,880
They were a lot of fun. You learn a lot, too. We go to these shows and we always

1490
01:32:15,880 --> 01:32:17,200
walk around and we go see what they got.

1491
01:32:17,940 --> 01:32:24,540
And what they got, man, what they got almost everywhere is a half-assed product

1492
01:32:24,540 --> 01:32:28,020
and your choice at a salesman.

1493
01:32:29,028 --> 01:32:32,488
And with our stuff, you don't need to be a salesman.

1494
01:32:32,568 --> 01:32:37,148
No, you don't. You hand them a piece of the stuff we make and you shut your

1495
01:32:37,148 --> 01:32:38,448
mouth. That's all it takes. And that's it.

1496
01:32:39,148 --> 01:32:41,868
That's probably, honestly, Shane, when you asked me when I knew it was going

1497
01:32:41,868 --> 01:32:44,828
to be a hit, was probably the first New Orleans Boat Show we did.

1498
01:32:45,308 --> 01:32:51,968
And you see people that never seen you before and they taste it and their eyes light up.

1499
01:32:52,008 --> 01:32:55,508
It's funny to watch. It is something to see. They grab it and they start walking away.

1500
01:32:55,788 --> 01:32:58,588
They put it in their mouth. They take about four or five steps.

1501
01:32:58,588 --> 01:33:01,168
And you've seen it. I know you've many times. They stop.

1502
01:33:01,728 --> 01:33:05,368
Then they turn around. Then they look up at the sign. And their eyes start doing

1503
01:33:05,368 --> 01:33:08,128
kind of sort of like a slot machine. You know those slots where they spin?

1504
01:33:08,308 --> 01:33:09,508
The eyes start kind of spinning.

1505
01:33:10,768 --> 01:33:13,628
It's something to see. And that's not just a few of them do that.

1506
01:33:14,028 --> 01:33:15,188
Almost every one of them that have

1507
01:33:15,188 --> 01:33:18,608
never tasted it do that. I've started offering to pay people to try it.

1508
01:33:18,648 --> 01:33:23,348
If they refuse to try it at the shows, some women will pass by and say,

1509
01:33:23,448 --> 01:33:24,368
hey, you want to try some jerky?

1510
01:33:24,568 --> 01:33:27,008
No, I don't like jerky. I say, I'll give you a dollar if you try it.

1511
01:33:27,568 --> 01:33:31,368
All right. right? She'll try it. If she don't like it, I give them a dollar.

1512
01:33:32,328 --> 01:33:36,928
90% of the time, she's going to give me some money after because she's going to buy a few packs.

1513
01:33:38,468 --> 01:33:41,928
I'll be dang, that's hilarious. But yeah, that's probably when I realized it

1514
01:33:41,928 --> 01:33:43,428
was really special. It was, yeah.

1515
01:33:43,908 --> 01:33:47,688
And that's why they're fun is because, like I said, when people eat something

1516
01:33:47,688 --> 01:33:49,348
good, they smile. It makes them happy.

1517
01:33:49,548 --> 01:33:52,288
And that's where you really see it. And you don't have to be a,

1518
01:33:52,328 --> 01:33:54,128
you're not slick about it.

1519
01:33:54,228 --> 01:33:56,748
You don't feel like you're selling You're not selling anything.

1520
01:33:56,748 --> 01:33:58,528
No, you're not selling. You feel like you're sharing.

1521
01:33:58,648 --> 01:34:01,668
Yeah, I'm not the last salesman you ever want selling for you. I can promise you that.

1522
01:34:01,808 --> 01:34:04,328
I'm not a salesman boning my body.

1523
01:34:04,488 --> 01:34:08,168
But when you got something good, that's genuinely good and you believe in it,

1524
01:34:08,268 --> 01:34:10,388
you get to share it with people.

1525
01:34:10,488 --> 01:34:13,508
You don't have to push it, you know? And that, man, it feels good.

1526
01:34:13,628 --> 01:34:15,288
It does. It's really awesome to have that.

1527
01:34:15,688 --> 01:34:18,868
That's, yeah, those trade shows, that's the beauty of those things.

1528
01:34:18,948 --> 01:34:22,228
You really get to see the fruits of your benefit, the benefits of your fruits,

1529
01:34:22,248 --> 01:34:24,808
works of labor and all, you know? So that's pretty cool.

1530
01:34:26,568 --> 01:34:29,808
So what do you think about a fifth generation?

1531
01:34:30,928 --> 01:34:34,588
It's going to be different then probably too. Yeah. What's it look like?

1532
01:34:34,608 --> 01:34:36,408
Or what could it look like?

1533
01:34:37,228 --> 01:34:41,288
I have no idea. Dude, you're asking me something I can't fathom.

1534
01:34:41,608 --> 01:34:46,688
But you'd want it. But you'd want it. Oh, absolutely. But I don't see where

1535
01:34:46,688 --> 01:34:48,288
it needs to change a lot, honestly.

1536
01:34:48,788 --> 01:34:53,308
You know? I mean, when it comes to... I mean, the bottom line,

1537
01:34:53,368 --> 01:34:59,848
I guess the reason why you're in business, one of the main reasons is to make

1538
01:34:59,848 --> 01:35:01,508
money. You want to make a good living.

1539
01:35:02,028 --> 01:35:05,908
As far as money-wise, if you're going to do this, how much do you need?

1540
01:35:06,848 --> 01:35:10,068
There's other reasons that people do what they do. You got billionaires out

1541
01:35:10,068 --> 01:35:13,928
there. I don't understand why they keep striving and pushing to make more money.

1542
01:35:14,468 --> 01:35:19,928
Just me. I'm simple. I'm simple Cajun. I guess I just only need so much.

1543
01:35:19,928 --> 01:35:22,088
I don't need to be a multimillionaire, you know?

1544
01:35:23,500 --> 01:35:26,780
It just depends on your wants and needs, I guess, you know?

1545
01:35:27,280 --> 01:35:32,880
Well, think about how many, I mean, we're sustaining quite a few families.

1546
01:35:33,920 --> 01:35:38,900
Yeah. You know, very, very well. I took that serious too. That's a serious thing.

1547
01:35:39,100 --> 01:35:41,700
That is. And that's something to be proud of, you know?

1548
01:35:41,840 --> 01:35:45,500
Yeah. I never was proud of it, but I took it very serious. I made sure,

1549
01:35:45,580 --> 01:35:48,700
I always made sure that they were paid first before I ever got paid,

1550
01:35:48,780 --> 01:35:51,120
you know? Because, I mean, we had some first few years in here.

1551
01:35:51,180 --> 01:35:54,360
It was, you know, it was small. It was a very small business. Me and John took over.

1552
01:35:54,760 --> 01:35:59,340
I mean, Daddy's last year in business was about, he did about 220,000 in sales.

1553
01:36:00,220 --> 01:36:03,160
So I don't know if you knew that, but yeah, do the math. Yeah.

1554
01:36:03,620 --> 01:36:06,940
But in about 10 years time, and probably because of the jerky,

1555
01:36:07,020 --> 01:36:08,700
we did tenfold on that in 10 years.

1556
01:36:09,140 --> 01:36:14,100
I was proud of that. Same four walls too, you know? So what did that feel like?

1557
01:36:14,760 --> 01:36:20,580
I took a lot of pride in that, you know? But it was- Was it a motivator to go

1558
01:36:20,580 --> 01:36:23,860
harder? or was it a, we did it?

1559
01:36:24,800 --> 01:36:28,020
I just wanted to be successful and I wanted daddy to be proud of me, you know?

1560
01:36:28,320 --> 01:36:33,060
But I mean, granted, a few years when we shut down the slaughterhouse and started

1561
01:36:33,060 --> 01:36:36,860
doing jerky full-time in there, I can remember daddy coming in and when you

1562
01:36:36,860 --> 01:36:40,980
take it out in the afternoon, we'd take it out in the back, you know, take it off the sticks.

1563
01:36:42,780 --> 01:36:47,240
Daddy would look at that and he was retired, you know? He'd just shake his head. I'm like, what, daddy?

1564
01:36:47,740 --> 01:36:51,940
And he'd say, man, I just can't believe y'all sell that much of that burnt meat.

1565
01:36:54,140 --> 01:36:55,180
And he'd walk away.

1566
01:36:57,220 --> 01:37:00,820
That's so good. I can't believe y'all sell that much of that.

1567
01:37:00,940 --> 01:37:03,000
That's what he called it. They should put y'all in jail.

1568
01:37:03,780 --> 01:37:05,880
Yeah, he'd probably say that too.

1569
01:37:09,020 --> 01:37:12,440
But yeah, he probably wished he wouldn't have told, he wished he'd have started

1570
01:37:12,440 --> 01:37:13,320
making it earlier probably.

1571
01:37:14,360 --> 01:37:17,800
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I think he was, he was, he was done,

1572
01:37:17,880 --> 01:37:20,680
you know, when he got out, he was ready. He didn't, he didn't need any more.

1573
01:37:20,960 --> 01:37:23,580
And he was like me, you know, he kind of simple, like do a little fishing and.

1574
01:37:25,292 --> 01:37:31,752
Of life. Don't need a whole lot. We've probably got hours upon hours we can

1575
01:37:31,752 --> 01:37:35,852
talk about different topics and probably next time we'll go into more of the

1576
01:37:35,852 --> 01:37:40,512
sportsman side of things. I'm very interested in that. Yeah.

1577
01:37:41,072 --> 01:37:46,352
That's a good idea. I've learned a lot from you since I was a kid and that'd

1578
01:37:46,352 --> 01:37:50,032
be a great next topic for next time.

1579
01:37:50,132 --> 01:37:54,472
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. But let's say to close off this, if there's some family

1580
01:37:54,472 --> 01:37:57,152
businesses out there that are in the second generation.

1581
01:37:58,492 --> 01:38:05,132
What should be going through their heads, whether it's the departing generation

1582
01:38:05,132 --> 01:38:06,552
or the taking over generation?

1583
01:38:07,092 --> 01:38:11,772
Well, the departing needs to make sure that the next generation is not doing it for the money.

1584
01:38:11,952 --> 01:38:17,112
They got to love what they're doing. I don't care if you're a janitor or bus

1585
01:38:17,112 --> 01:38:20,772
driver, whatever it is, if you don't love what you do, you're not going to be successful that.

1586
01:38:20,872 --> 01:38:23,332
I'm convinced. If you're just doing it for a paycheck and a job,

1587
01:38:23,452 --> 01:38:25,112
it's not going to make the next generation.

1588
01:38:25,612 --> 01:38:28,812
And that's the problem with generational businesses a lot of times.

1589
01:38:29,292 --> 01:38:33,332
So the first generation, they love it, they work hard at it, and they build it, okay?

1590
01:38:33,872 --> 01:38:37,712
Then what happens on the next generation, they just don't love it.

1591
01:38:37,712 --> 01:38:41,032
They just milk it kind of. They're there and they're doing it for the money.

1592
01:38:41,512 --> 01:38:44,272
And then by the time it gets to that third generation, they haven't learned

1593
01:38:44,272 --> 01:38:46,292
to love it from their parents.

1594
01:38:46,492 --> 01:38:49,832
And that's not always the case, but a lot of times I think I think if you research

1595
01:38:49,832 --> 01:38:51,712
it, I would be surprised if it's any other way.

1596
01:38:51,812 --> 01:38:55,172
But I think that's one of the issues is they're kind of milking it for the money.

1597
01:38:55,952 --> 01:39:00,192
If you don't love what you do, find something else to do. That's my best advice.

1598
01:39:00,372 --> 01:39:04,312
And be straight up with your kid. If you've got a kid coming into your business, let them know.

1599
01:39:05,032 --> 01:39:08,512
Yeah, if you're successful and you're making good money, yeah,

1600
01:39:08,572 --> 01:39:09,752
that's good and that's wonderful.

1601
01:39:09,912 --> 01:39:14,572
But if you do it for that, I'm convinced that most businesses just ain't going to make it.

1602
01:39:14,692 --> 01:39:19,412
And they may make it, but it won't thrive, I don't think. Mm-hmm.

1603
01:39:21,511 --> 01:39:27,251
I'd like to get, so I kind of started making a list of, of future interviews.

1604
01:39:27,891 --> 01:39:31,951
I got a big list. I probably have 45 people on this list. Oh, that's awesome. Good.

1605
01:39:32,111 --> 01:39:35,831
And it's all people that I really, I really think would be interested in.

1606
01:39:35,891 --> 01:39:39,951
And I think they would say yes. Yeah. It's all people I'm very interested in hearing from.

1607
01:39:40,611 --> 01:39:47,111
It's all, it's all people that I, I, I really believe they love what they do.

1608
01:39:47,191 --> 01:39:48,691
Whatever, whatever that thing is.

1609
01:39:48,851 --> 01:39:51,231
I think it's, I think they love what they do.

1610
01:39:51,511 --> 01:39:55,511
I love that, yeah. And the most important part is they're all customers.

1611
01:39:55,891 --> 01:40:00,531
Oh, cool. So I think that'll be really cool is to kind of keep this as a thing.

1612
01:40:00,591 --> 01:40:06,831
You know, all of these people, you know, general public might not realize that they are our customers.

1613
01:40:06,991 --> 01:40:12,031
Whether they're a regular customer, they're a once a year, we know them.

1614
01:40:12,051 --> 01:40:15,471
You know, we have a relationship with them because of this place. Yeah.

1615
01:40:15,871 --> 01:40:19,431
And that's kind of why we, you know, that's the miracles in meat.

1616
01:40:19,431 --> 01:40:25,271
And that's the that's what it is and it you know i heard a quote from i think

1617
01:40:25,271 --> 01:40:30,671
a guy came in here after pawpaw passed and i was at the register and he said

1618
01:40:30,671 --> 01:40:35,191
he said sorry to hear about you about your pawpaw he said you know that man

1619
01:40:35,191 --> 01:40:38,671
that that man can make a friend with a rattlesnake,

1620
01:40:40,511 --> 01:40:43,631
and i never i never forgot about that you know but.

1621
01:40:45,771 --> 01:40:49,651
But it's true. That says a lot about a person.

1622
01:40:49,831 --> 01:40:54,351
It's really true. Yeah. And that's how he treated people, you know.

1623
01:40:54,391 --> 01:40:58,271
You watch him interact with customers at the counter, and I'll watch you do the same.

1624
01:40:59,191 --> 01:41:03,471
It's this place because you're interacting with people. People don't interact with people anymore.

1625
01:41:03,691 --> 01:41:05,471
I mean, even like when you go to Walmart, you got a machine.

1626
01:41:05,611 --> 01:41:08,931
You don't even have a checkout person or a lot of these big box stores, you know.

1627
01:41:09,391 --> 01:41:11,971
I think that's important, that interaction. Actually, I think,

1628
01:41:12,071 --> 01:41:15,291
you know, hopefully we come full circle with that at some point and it comes

1629
01:41:15,291 --> 01:41:17,611
back around where you have someone to talk to when you check out somewhere,

1630
01:41:17,791 --> 01:41:19,451
you know? Yeah, it's fun, man.

1631
01:41:19,511 --> 01:41:23,171
And I truly believe that. Yeah, daddy liked the conversation.

1632
01:41:23,451 --> 01:41:26,911
He liked that older generation, man. I mean, that's all they had.

1633
01:41:27,011 --> 01:41:28,171
Think about it. The storytelling, man.

1634
01:41:28,491 --> 01:41:31,951
Storytelling. They didn't have radios hardly, you know, not until probably he

1635
01:41:31,951 --> 01:41:33,911
was a teenager, maybe a little before that.

1636
01:41:34,151 --> 01:41:38,171
Maybe as a young kid, they might have had radio and I don't know if he had it.

1637
01:41:38,751 --> 01:41:40,791
But, you know, their first saw, I don't know if you knew that.

1638
01:41:40,791 --> 01:41:46,591
Their first saw, they'd take their Model T and they'd jack it up,

1639
01:41:46,631 --> 01:41:50,091
take the wheel off, and they'd put a belt on it and hook it to the saw.

1640
01:41:50,631 --> 01:41:52,311
That's how they used a Model T to run the saw.

1641
01:41:53,011 --> 01:41:55,951
That was their first electric or whatever, or powered saw, I guess you could

1642
01:41:55,951 --> 01:41:59,151
say. Yeah, yeah. I was telling somebody the other day, I kind of forgot that.

1643
01:41:59,251 --> 01:42:00,311
I thought that was interesting.

1644
01:42:00,691 --> 01:42:06,531
But daddy slaughtered on, people don't realize how far we've come with slaughtering

1645
01:42:06,531 --> 01:42:12,891
and just meat and sanitation, I guess. I mean, it was slaughtering on dirt floors until...

1646
01:42:14,111 --> 01:42:18,991
Probably mid-50s. And whenever he built this place, I think mid-50s, early 50s.

1647
01:42:19,451 --> 01:42:23,171
Before that, they were back there still starting on dirt floors and throwing a bunch of sawdust down.

1648
01:42:23,331 --> 01:42:26,751
And I'm sure there were still some places doing it after he quit, you know. Yeah.

1649
01:42:26,911 --> 01:42:31,011
But so that's, what, 75 years ago? I mean, yeah, for young people, that's a long time.

1650
01:42:31,071 --> 01:42:37,011
But for me, I mean, I was, what, I was maybe, you know, 10, 15 years from that

1651
01:42:37,011 --> 01:42:40,911
when I came into remembering and actually helping.

1652
01:42:41,471 --> 01:42:46,271
It sucks that our, you know, previous generations, they did what they had to do.

1653
01:42:46,571 --> 01:42:49,531
And it seems like it's getting to where we do what we're allowed to do.

1654
01:42:50,091 --> 01:42:52,191
Well, yeah, it's getting more and more of that. You know, doesn't that suck?

1655
01:42:52,351 --> 01:42:53,931
Yeah. I mean, laws, it's a shame.

1656
01:42:54,071 --> 01:42:57,911
They never, I wish every time they made a law, it had to be revisited every

1657
01:42:57,911 --> 01:42:59,871
10 years. Revoted on. Okay.

1658
01:43:00,471 --> 01:43:01,631
Because you just get more and

1659
01:43:01,631 --> 01:43:05,391
more laws, you know. And if it's not revisited, it comes off the books.

1660
01:43:05,891 --> 01:43:08,931
That's how it should be. because otherwise, I mean, even now,

1661
01:43:08,951 --> 01:43:12,831
you got laws everywhere. Everything is governed in laws.

1662
01:43:13,031 --> 01:43:15,691
In fact, there's so many of them, half of them aren't even enforced probably anymore.

1663
01:43:17,551 --> 01:43:22,291
So the customer interactions on the counter and the storytelling and the checking

1664
01:43:22,291 --> 01:43:26,351
in and asking, you know, what you're cooking, the little things like that,

1665
01:43:26,451 --> 01:43:31,331
I believe that that's why you loved what you did is because there is that aspect.

1666
01:43:31,491 --> 01:43:33,451
Whereas if you have a company and

1667
01:43:33,451 --> 01:43:38,731
you're behind a computer and you're only interested in the sale number.

1668
01:43:38,931 --> 01:43:43,531
Yeah. That would not interest me at all. You don't get that personal connection with anyone.

1669
01:43:43,731 --> 01:43:45,951
Yeah. That was my favorite thing here. Right. Waiting on customers.

1670
01:43:46,251 --> 01:43:50,651
Yeah. I loved, I mean, by far, the thing I loved most was waiting on a customer

1671
01:43:50,651 --> 01:43:51,791
and having to cut meat for them.

1672
01:43:51,891 --> 01:43:56,471
You know, I loved cutting meat on a saw, whatever, steaks, get them ground.

1673
01:43:56,571 --> 01:44:00,071
I just, I loved waiting on people, but, you know, I loved waiting on a period,

1674
01:44:00,151 --> 01:44:03,611
but when I had to cut something, I liked, you know, to try and make it pretty

1675
01:44:03,611 --> 01:44:08,071
as I could and do a really good job you know that perfectionist in me when it

1676
01:44:08,071 --> 01:44:11,531
came to that would really come out right you get to put that little you get

1677
01:44:11,531 --> 01:44:15,551
to put the little spin on it you get to put your stamp yeah exactly personal

1678
01:44:15,551 --> 01:44:18,411
this is how i do it you know.

1679
01:44:19,387 --> 01:44:22,707
And people appreciate it too. They do. They realize it. You don't have to tell

1680
01:44:22,707 --> 01:44:24,627
them. They realize it. It's really cool, man. Yeah, they see it.

1681
01:44:24,887 --> 01:44:26,847
I love interacting with the kids.

1682
01:44:27,347 --> 01:44:31,387
I like grabbing a kid and ask them if they want to go check out the cooler,

1683
01:44:31,447 --> 01:44:33,447
go look at the smoker and stuff like that.

1684
01:44:33,607 --> 01:44:34,547
That's awesome. Sometimes I give

1685
01:44:34,547 --> 01:44:37,807
them a fresh green onion to chew on and they'll just grab it and eat it.

1686
01:44:38,007 --> 01:44:40,687
So you don't do it like that. You don't do it like daddy does then, huh?

1687
01:44:41,307 --> 01:44:44,127
Wrap him up in a cow hide? No, not a hide. The whole cow.

1688
01:44:44,427 --> 01:44:46,787
No. Yeah. He's taking a kid one day. Haven't done that one yet.

1689
01:44:46,927 --> 01:44:50,207
Yeah. But he was coming in. He was aggravating them. pretty regular,

1690
01:44:50,227 --> 01:44:51,527
I think, and they just got enough of him.

1691
01:44:51,867 --> 01:44:54,387
And before they split the animal, they had just finished skinning it.

1692
01:44:54,807 --> 01:44:57,587
Him and Clee, they took him, put him inside the cavity of the animal,

1693
01:44:57,627 --> 01:45:00,187
and they closed the ribs up on him. Wouldn't let him out.

1694
01:45:01,327 --> 01:45:04,567
Freshly killed. You know, it's not a lot of blood, thank goodness,

1695
01:45:04,667 --> 01:45:06,567
but I'm sure it was wet and sticky and, you know.

1696
01:45:06,667 --> 01:45:10,227
You learned a good lesson that day. Smelled just like a dead cow coming out of there.

1697
01:45:10,707 --> 01:45:12,687
Learned a good lesson. I don't know if he ever came back.

1698
01:45:13,567 --> 01:45:17,967
Nope. I was probably a kid when he did that. They had some stories,

1699
01:45:18,007 --> 01:45:20,127
him too. Oh, my goodness. Well, all right.

1700
01:45:21,127 --> 01:45:26,607
That's an awesome few hours we hit, and we've got many more.

1701
01:45:27,347 --> 01:45:29,667
Yeah, this was fun, Shane. I enjoyed it. We'll do some more.

1702
01:45:29,787 --> 01:45:32,207
We've got plenty more stories. Yeah, we just touched the surface of some of

1703
01:45:32,207 --> 01:45:33,847
the stuff. I'd love to get some of the siblings.

1704
01:45:34,687 --> 01:45:36,927
Yeah, that'd be fun. That would be fun. Because like I said,

1705
01:45:37,027 --> 01:45:39,347
their memories are going to be different from mine. They're going to remember different stuff.

1706
01:45:39,727 --> 01:45:42,847
John, you know, John's going to have different memories of stuff with Super

1707
01:45:42,847 --> 01:45:45,067
Kite and all. Yeah, and this is something that I wish.

1708
01:45:45,327 --> 01:45:48,907
Before I leave, I just want to remind you, 30-foot, that's my advice.

1709
01:45:49,547 --> 01:45:55,987
Take it or leave it more nor less yeah I'd like to say we've been doing this

1710
01:45:55,987 --> 01:45:59,847
for 10 years by now because that's probably how long we've been thinking about

1711
01:45:59,847 --> 01:46:02,267
doing it and oh the podcast we've got,

1712
01:46:02,827 --> 01:46:09,967
we've got hours of conversation good conversation recorded in the office just you know maybe me Bo Phil,

1713
01:46:10,627 --> 01:46:13,467
Brody cool we do this often man we

1714
01:46:13,467 --> 01:46:16,727
go down these deep conversations and I've

1715
01:46:16,727 --> 01:46:19,547
always said I want some of that I've always said man if

1716
01:46:19,547 --> 01:46:23,087
some of these if some of these man these startups or

1717
01:46:23,087 --> 01:46:26,027
or even you know whatever 50-year businesses if

1718
01:46:26,027 --> 01:46:31,947
they could hear some of these conversations who knows who knows what little

1719
01:46:31,947 --> 01:46:36,807
kick it might give them and uh i really believe in that so this that's what

1720
01:46:36,807 --> 01:46:41,367
this is for is it's for anyone and it's also for us to just put on our bookshelf

1721
01:46:41,367 --> 01:46:44,427
you know for the kids for the grandkids You know.

1722
01:46:46,187 --> 01:46:49,107
You don't get to pick people's brain after they're gone, you know,

1723
01:46:49,147 --> 01:46:50,807
but it's the least we can do.

1724
01:46:50,927 --> 01:46:56,207
And I think it can make someone happy. Yeah.

1725
01:46:56,967 --> 01:46:59,587
All right. All right, brother. Thank you so much. Thank you.

1726
01:47:03,796 --> 01:47:06,276
All right, that's it for this episode of the Miracles to Meet podcast.

1727
01:47:06,716 --> 01:47:11,116
We ask that you share it with at least one person in your life that you think needs to hear it.

1728
01:47:12,116 --> 01:47:15,216
You know, if you got a little something from it, you got some little goose pimples

1729
01:47:15,216 --> 01:47:19,276
or just gave you some feel goods, you know, send it to someone else.

1730
01:47:19,316 --> 01:47:20,836
Let them let them feel that, too.

1731
01:47:21,376 --> 01:47:25,376
And if you loved it, please leave us a five star review. That'll really help out.

1732
01:47:25,476 --> 01:47:30,176
And if you only loved it like four stars or so, please do not leave a review.

1733
01:47:30,536 --> 01:47:34,816
Same thing with the one through three. If you're not interested in any of those, only five stars.

1734
01:47:35,596 --> 01:47:39,596
If you have any personal questions or comments about the episode,

1735
01:47:39,776 --> 01:47:43,076
shoot them over to Bourgeois Meat Market on Facebook or Instagram,

1736
01:47:44,236 --> 01:47:45,636
and we'll reach back out.

1737
01:47:45,836 --> 01:47:51,196
And if you have any ideas for any cool future guests, please shoot those over too.

1738
01:47:51,256 --> 01:47:56,816
We're always interested in hearing who else is out there and what kind of cool

1739
01:47:56,816 --> 01:47:59,156
stories we might be able to bring into this place.

1740
01:48:00,616 --> 01:48:01,616
See you next time.

1741
01:48:01,840 --> 01:48:16,132
Music.