I was a vegetarian between the ages of 15 and 25, then again between about 30 and 40. In the former period it was probably to annoy my parents, and in the latter a woman might have been involved in my decision. I forget now.
One thing that always stuck in my mind about the journey of living flesh to the table was when William Burroughs was asked what the title of The Naked Lunch meant and he responded "The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork."[
My Dad used to shoot wild rabbits for farmers so they could preserve their crops, and some of those rabbits he used to bring home for us to eat. Naturally before we could do that they needed skinning and gutting. Dad used to do this at the kitchen sink.
You'd know when this was going on when the whole house pervaded with an appalling stink as he opened up their stomachs with a knife and removed their guts.
However after he stripped the meat away from the bones, it would be given to my Mum who would do wonders with it and then serve it up to us for tea in a curry or in a pie.
It was an added bonus if my late brother or I found a lead shotgun pellet amongst the meat and we could spit it at each other.
It always surprised me that from a crude mess of blood and bones something so wonderful as delicious food and and the interactions of a loving family could be produced.
Death hasn't been kind to Burroughs. Nobody seems to talk about him much, but I always think of him when I see the carcasses hanging upside down in a butcher's van on their way to be cut up, on their way to the end of the fork,
Very interesting blog. When I was young we lived next door to a butcher’s shop & this is a scene I remember seeing regularly in my childhood. Along with the carcasses hanging in the butchers shop. Nowadays they are kept in the chill store out of sight.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the slaughter house in the street behind ours, this gave my friends and I quite a robust knowledge of where the meat on our table came from. Something children don’t often understand nowadays. Like you I’ve been vegetarian on & off through my life but now believe the welfare of animals through their life is the most important factor as the world will never stop eating meat.