The Head Cheeser

The back yard of 3810 Park Ave. No. (or, then, 8436 104th SE) in Kennydale didn't always end at the Bergman's fence line. When I was growing up here our property went all the way to Meadow (106th). And back there was a barn. And in the barn we kept a succession of "large animals". Usually we had either a steer or pig, sometimes both, fattening for the locker (all our meat went to a locker in cold storage in Renton in those days; no one had a home freezer; hey, we're talking "back in the day" here, early late 40's, early 50's.) Well, the one bad day in these well-kept critter's lives would eventually come and we would butcher. I usually didn't get too directly involved in the killing and skinning, but I DID have an important job: taking the head in a wheelbarrow down the street to Mr. Nicoli. I would give the head to him and he'd give me a few bottles of his homemade wine in return, to take back to my dad. Now, Mr.Nicoli had traditional Italian tastes and accompanying skills. He knew how to make pickled pigs feet, sausage and....jellied meat loafs boiled out of the heads of butchered "large animals." Umm... also tongue products. He was a gentle, nice guy and his family was one of my favorites in the neighborhood. Definitely he was not someone you'd consider aggressive, controlling or bossy. But he WAS the head cheeser.