HOLY CROSS, Iowa (AP) — Bob Hayes picked up the phone Dec. 21 and gave the usual greeting. “Holy Cross Locker, Bob speaking,” he said. A few seconds pass. Suddenly, Hayes chimes in again. “All right, 30 packages, that’s 60 pounds, all smoked, got it.” He jotted down the order on a piece of paper and pinned it to a wall already smothered with similarly sized notes. Thirty packages. Sixty pounds. It was a larger-than-usual order for the Holy Cross Locker. But practically every order for the past few weeks has been of a similar size. “People are in panic mode,” Hayes told the Telegraph Herald . “We got a guy coming up from Minnesota who ordered 100 pounds.”

Those massive orders started coming in November, shortly after Hayes announced that after 72 years in business, the Holy Cross Locker will permanently close Dec. 29. Founded in 1946 by Vic Brecht and Louie Hayes, who was Bob’s father, Holy Cross Locker has been one of the cornerstone meat processors in the tri-state area for generations. Much of the business remains the same as it did more than 70 years ago. A chipped wood countertop sits at the entrance. Ink-stained meat-labeling stamps dangle from the wall. Family photos hang on the massive freezer door. Hayes can’t remember when he started working at the locker with his father. He’s pretty sure by middle school he was slicing up cuts. But what he is certain of is that the locker has been a second home for his entire life.

Now, at 67 years old, he’s hanging up the smock. It’s not that he is tired of meat processing, he said. It’s just time to move on. The locker’s closing will hit meat enthusiasts throughout the tri-state area and beyond. Holy Cross Locker is known for producing some of the finest smoked sausage, with many farmers claiming it has no equal. While he enjoys working with meat, Hayes said he mostly is going to miss the people, whether it be his customers or his longtime employees who he now considers family. Still, he’s looking forward to his retirement. All that stands in the way now is a few thousand pounds of meat.