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The Planet Money podcast from NPR. Back in the 1940s, Chicago school kids took local field trips

that would be unthinkable today. I'm curious city reporter Monica Eng. And a few years ago,

I answered a question about what happened to Chicago's fabled meatpacking

industry. The story explored the history of the Union stockyards, which for almost a century

supplied most of the country's meat. During the reporting, I heard a tale about the stockyards that

deserved a separate story of its own, because it shows just how much the city embraced its reputation as hog butcher to the world.

The story was told by my pal Ed Kramer, a WBZ volunteer who remembered going there with his eighth grade class in 1941.

Ed died in 2018, at the age of 89. He had a great memory and such great Chicago

stories. Here we got Chicago school kids to help bring Ed's tale to life, but what you're

about to hear is not for the squeamish.

I was in the eighth grade at Wicker Park Grammar School.

Mrs. Paulson was my eighth grade teacher,

and we all packed our bag of lunches and went to the Wicker Park L train at Damon, North of Milwaukee.

And we got off at the Swifton Company Station.

Now imagine riding over the stockpens that were filled with cattle, looking down at this

herd of animals.

They were probably over a million just right here. I love them.

I just want to eat them.

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