#foresterotica #ThePornPapers

The Porn Papers 9 – Onwards and upwards

Father Forest: Now we have to back track a bit. As well as producing Fork during the 1920’s the firm was producing base materials for the cosmetics industry.
Priscilla: Cosmetics? From a meat business?

Father Forest: Things weren’t as regulated then and fats and gelatine were purified and sold into cosmetics as well as the food industry.
Priscilla: I don’t see things like that listed on the labels nowadays.

Forest: No Sis, society has come a long way in the last hundred years and so has Forest pharmaceuticals.
Priscilla: Trust you to get in a plug for your empire Forest!

Forest: Just saying. After Fork was sold G2 uncle Forest bought out a little cosmetics firm and got his nephew, my Great Grandfather, to run it and develop up market products. That was the start of Forest Cosmetics and the ‘Uncle Forest’ brand that we use till today.
Father Forest: And with the onset of World War 2 it was natural to extend the business into the medical field so by 1947 the name was changed to Forest Pharmaceuticals.

#foresterotica #thepornpapers

The Porn Papers 8 - More on the meat business

Priscilla: And did the Americans keep eating it after the war?
Cardinal Forest: Not in vast quantities but it was worth exporting until in 1927 G2 uncle Forest who’d then taken over from his father sold the US rights for what seemed a generous sum.

Priscilla: You say ‘seemed’ - you mean he really got ripped off?
Cardinal Forest: No. From what I learnt it was a fair price at the time but once the Great Depression came the demand for cheap food increased dramatically and in three years the production had quadrupled.

Cardinal Forest: The only minor consolation was that it still bore the original name and acknowledged the origin of the recipe.
Priscilla: Oh yes, the family name. So it was sold as ‘Forest Pork’ then?
Cardinal Forest: No – much snappier. He’d called it ‘Fork’.

Priscilla: So why don’t we see any of it now?
Cardinal Forest: Well the guy he sold it to was in the food processing business, it made sense, but his name was Jay Hormel and in 1937 he brought out his own product – Spam – and the rest as they say is history.

#foresterotica #thepornpapers

P7 - The family history continues

Priscilla: Well I must admit – you do seem to know which one of you I’m talking to even if I’m not looking at you but let’s get on with the history. We didn’t get where we are today on a few butchers shops.

Father Forest: In a way, we did. The entrepreneurial spirit was strong and one of our G3 Uncles led the way.

Cardinal Forest: Yes, G3 uncle Forest was still in the meat business and just at the end of the 1800’s started producing a processed tinned meat from the less popular cuts in the shop. And he reckoned he could put in meat that would never have appeared on the counter.

Forest: But all fit for human consumption I assume?

Cardinal Forest: Of course, but in the West End pigs trotters and belly pork just didn’t sell.

Cardinal Forest: So he got the meat chopped up along with the cheek and a few other bits, cooked and tinned with the jelly. It was the first product to carry the ‘Forest’ name.

Priscilla: And this made him a fortune?

Cardinal Forest: A modest profit at first, it was 20 odd years before he got lucky.

Father Forest: You mean World War 1 and troop rations?

Cardinal Forest: Not at the outset – the Brits didn’t take to it but when the Americans joined in they tried it and couldn’t get enough.

Priscilla: (thinks) From what I’ve seen, they’ll eat anything.

#foresterotica #Thepornpapers

P6 – The Porn Papers 6 – Back to those names

Priscilla: I’ve heard enough about butchers – I still want to know how they knew who was talking to who!
Cardinal Forest: They did it just the way you do with your brothers Priscilla.

Priscilla: I still don’t understand – I just call them both ‘Forest’.
Forest: Not quite.

Father Forest: You see sister, when you call me ‘Forest’ you don’t say it exactly as you do if you’re speaking to Forest there.
Cardinal Forest: Every new little Forest that came along got his own special intonation and it became second nature in the family but outsiders couldn’t detect it.

Priscilla: And you can detect which one I’m speaking to when I don’t think I’m saying it differently?
Forest: Oh yes. Haven’t you seen the films of penguins finding their mates in colonies of thousands just by their call – if birds can do it why shouldn’t we?

#foresterotica #thepornpapers

Father Forest: So the long arm of the law finally caught up with them?
Cardinal Forest: Oh no, G3GF kept one step ahead of the Peelers – as the early Victorian police were called – and the courts as he kept up with the court reports and a development in the law that could have been their downfall.
Priscilla: So …… if they were all ‘Forests’ how did they talk to each other at home? I know I’d be confused!
Cardinal Forest: All in good time Priscilla. Now, G3GF spotted a change in the courts …..

Cardinal Forest: ….. the police lawyers started using something which had been in common law for a long time – the charge of ‘joint enterprise’.
Father Forest: I think I’ve heard of that – if it’s clear a crime was committed by one of a group they can all be charged and convicted, right?
Cardinal Forest: Just so. It meant that all 3 sons could have been convicted for a single theft and the boys realised the danger as well as their father.
Forest: The gang just vanished from the streets then? So do you know what happened next?

Cardinal Forest: Indeed I do. G3GF wasn’t as opposed to his sons’ activities as it seemed and over the 3 years had amassed a tidy sum from their exploits. At the same time he’d been advancing himself from meat porter to cutter to working with one of Smithfield’s top butchers.
Forest: And this is where the butcher’s shop comes into play?
Father Forest: I think I heard something about that from an Uncle – in fact I think it was your father cousin?
Cardinal Forest: Quite possible – several branches of the family kept in the business for close on a hundred years.

Cardinal Forest: G3GF took the family out of the east end and set up business in Hackney, then on the outskirts of London and quite respectable. The 3 boys worked with him and and within a decade two had moved out to set up their own shops while our G2GF stayed and inherited the business.
Priscilla: Sounds almost like a rags to riches story!
Forest: Not without effort Priscilla – I’d like to see you cutting a side of beef at 5 in the morning!
Priscilla: Really Forest! You know how I hate handling raw meat when I have to cook!
Father Forest: (thinks) I’ve always wondered if mother played away to get her as a sister …….

#foresterotica #thepornpapers

The Porn Papers 4 – The Cardinal Continues

Priscilla: I still don’t see …..

Forest: For pity’s sake Priscilla – let him get on with the story!

Cardinal Forest: Thank you, Forest. Now as I was saying, the story goes……

Cardinal Forest: ……. Our 3GGF saw that many of the young miscreants brought before the courts were named by their victims, even those who came from quite far away.

Father Forest: I think I’m beginning to get the idea!

Priscilla: Well I’m still totally in the dark.

Forest: (thinks) Nothing new there.

Cardinal Forest: On the streets he realised that kids shouted out to each other when they saw a likely victim and quite often one of them would be directing the operation right up to the moment the wallet or watch or whatever was taken.

Cardinal Forest: Though they used a code to identify their victim it became clear that they used their real names. He couldn’t understand why but they just kept on incriminating themselves at the scene of the crimes.

Father Forest: So more than one boy with the same name means there would be no identification.

Cardinal Forest: Exactly. G3GF had 3 sons and for a while they were one of the most successful gangs. Luckily the Porn gene was dominant - they all looked much the same as well and they wore similar clothes so they avoided prosecution for nearly 3 years.