"Go ahead and touch it, if you'd like."

Steve and I traveled to Yale, Michigan for their annual Bologna Festival this weekend!  It was a hoot and a half! A whole festival celebrating the bologna that has been made in the town for the past forty years.  To start out the festivities, we stopped by famed C.Roy's Meats and took the open-to-the-public-only-once-a-year tour.  It seemed benign enough to start.  Heard the history of the factory, heard about the 1-6 inspectors (FDA) that are on the premises all the time, heard how they have five to six kids in to clean the place for four to five hours every night, and how during their history, six of those "kids" have gone on to work as FDA inspectors.  It was all so sweet - - until we walked into the "killing room."  (I will spare you all the details that I was not spared as I averted my eyes, breathed through my mouth, and thought happy thoughts.)  The next room was the meat cooler.  It wasn't bad enough that we had to stand there (still breathing through my mouth and thinking happy thoughts), but when the tour guide said, "Go ahead and touch it, if you'd like."  That was just too much!  I had to laugh out loud and take a picture, or I truly think I would have gotten sick!