Dad’s Egg & Poultry Business

Ever Used a Blotter?
Or do you even know what a blotter is? They used to quite common when people used ink pens. I’m not talking about ball point pens, I’m talking about real ink pens. You know the kind you filled from an ink bottle. The blotter was a necessity to blot your writing so that it would not smear. Blotters were often used for advertising. I have picture of a real blotter that was used for advertising by one of my Dad’s first business ventures in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The side I am showing was on slick paper, the reverse side was a absorbent paper that would blot the ink. It’s interesting to note the phone number which in those days was a five digit number and there were not any area codes.

In later years people did not use blotters, so other types of advertising freebees were provided. Here’s some examples:

The main product of my Dad’s business during those years was eggs. His copyright brand was Pride of the Flock, and here’s a picture of one of the later day egg cartons:

I worked from my Dad on weekends and every summer during high school.  He made me start work in the most difficult part of the operation. My first year I worked in the chicken processing part of the operation. I was a trained killer of chickens and learned all the scalding, picking and preparation of the birds for market.

My second year I was promoted to work with the eggs where I was an egg candler. I held eggs to a light to learn how to grade the eggs so that only the Grade A’s would be packaged in that Pride of the Flock cartoon.

I was moved to truck driver for my 3rd year where I delivered eggs and poultry all over the city of Knoxville. It was one of the most educational experiences I ever had in dealing with the public and learning about human nature. I could share several stories about happenings with people in both small and larger grocery stores.

The last year I worked in the office where I did some of the bookkeeping, walk in sales and miscellaneous tasks. In all it was quite an experience. I enjoyed it very much and learned things that have helped me cope in life.

A President That Talked About God
This is an interesting video which is called a tribute to President Ronald Reagan. It’s amazing the things he said which I am sure would not go over with many people today. I really liked President Reagan and I still believe that there is a place for God in our government. Click here to watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds7vnZWQh8A

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Tennessee Granddaddy Says:
I read recently where someone said “Bad decisions make good stories”. I guess there’s some truth in that because I can think of a few things in my own life where a bad decision resulted in a good story. Most of the time these stories are not very funny at first, but as time goes along there becomes more amusement in the story. But the main thing is we should learn something from bad decisions so that we don’t repeat them. That doesn’t always work because I have one story that is the result of 3 bad decisions that were the same decision. I might tell you about it some day.

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Quote of the Day

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
~Edith Sitwell

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Joke of the Day

A wife texts her husband on a cold morning: "Windows frozen."

Her husband texts back: "Pour some lukewarm water over it."

The wife texts back 5 minutes later: "Computer completely messed up now."

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