Pig's Tail

i grew up in the suburbs of pittsburgh. went to a public school that was a clse to a private school as you can get. growing up, once i started thinking critically, i noticed that our grocery store packed chicken breasts and wings, steak, fish filet, some ambiguous looking ground meats, but for the most part, grade A stuff, the choicest of the choice. where did the rest of the animal go? what about the organs, the head, the feet?

at west side market, you can find it all together, but not at giant eagle. today, we went to the grocery store on e 79th, near evan's apartment. local owned store with hough and fairfax customers. one of the employees brought out a cart of meats to stock: "butt portion", "flank portion". there's a whole section of the store labeled "chittlings". as we sought the frozen corn for our crock pot recipe, evan pulled a package out of the refrigerator. "you want to serve pig's tail?" he asked. i don't think that would go over well with our dinner guests' vegetarian diet.

at the cash register, the lady in front of me asked her sons if they had an extra dollar. at first i thought she didn't have enough cash for her purchase, then i realized that the cashier had a wad of ones safety-pinned to her shirt. they exchanged a lot of laughter and familiar smiles. i thought maybe it was her birthday? but i really wasn't sure and was too proud to show my ignorance by asking. the cashier was cordial to us, but that comfortable familiarity wasn't there.

sometimes, living in the city feels like i'm in a different country altogether.