If You Think You Are "Hard"

I would like you to share some memories with you. Most of my training was in the environment of very hard men, namely Smithfield Meat Market during the 70's. If you could fight or not, you would just keep training, in the Market the rule was if you could had a fight you don't brag about it. If you did, they would send someone round to your shop and shut you up, and you would pay the price for having a big mouth. If they could not do it, someone would be paid to silence you, so all men respected a defeated opponent every champion was humble and everyone would respected him. The only thought of every man was to work hard and train for the future development of their survival.

The laymans comment was usually if you were any good at fighting you would not be working there, however, here was a great place to train, especially amongst 40 tons of beef and with only 8 hours to shift it. Those 40 tons of beef would be handled two or three times which calculates, in a day to 120 tons of shifting, so your training would be achieved. The fat on a hindquarter of beef after 20 hours was as hard as lead supported by meat which would be the same has a man's body weight so to punch and move it would be quite effective, and time was of the essence.

However, a small and weak man would be on the same level as anyone else, because in the market environment you were surrounded by the tools of the trade, knifes, cleavers, saws and a abundance of hooks, he could strike at anytime with the intention to kill.

So all your thoughts about being hard would disappear

George Andrews