Here’s The Beef

Linda Burton posting from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – “Just climb those steps and walk the walkway over the pens. The auction is in that red barn over yonder.” Those directions were followed by a good squirt-through-the-teeth spit onto the ground and a nod towards a large red barn. Way over yonder. I climbed the steps as high as the walkway, but vertigo took over then. A small group of handsome black cattle stood penned below me; ears tagged; beyond them more cattle in brown; and way beyond that, the red auction barn. They stared at me and I stared back, each of us wondering where they were headed next. A man approached the steps wearing a long pony tail and a high-powered camera; I asked what he was planning to shoot. “Cows and cowboys,” he answered. “I’m just looking for something interesting.” He proceeded along the walkway over the cattle pens, headed for the red barn. The morning auction went on without me; I more sure-footedly explored Stockyards City from a ground-level view. Later I caught up with the crowd at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, where cowboys and cattlemen have been going since 1910. » read more