The Meat Plant

It was 1955. Lloyd was 19 years old. His best friend, Ken, was 19, too. They needed to get jobs. They needed to earn money.

They got a job in a meat plant. The meat plant was in Kansas. It was called Armour and Company.

Lloyd had to work on the line. His job was to take the bacon off the line. He had to put in under a big roller. The roller looked like a big rolling pin. It was as big as a tree stump. The roller pressed the meat and made it into bacon.

Lloyd also had to take the pork loins off the belt. He had to put them into a big metal chute. It looked like a slide from the park. It had a big mouth. It was six feet long. It had a hole at both ends. The meat went through the chute. It came out the other side. Ken cut the fat off the meat. He had to do it by hand. He had to cut it with a sharp knife.

Other workers put the meat into boxes. They put it on trucks. The trucks took it to stores, and the stores sold it to the people.

It was cool in the plant. All the workers wore sweatshirts. It was like being in a big freezer. They all had jobs until the meat was all cut. When there were no more orders for meat, the plant closed down. It stayed closed until someone needed a lot of meat again.