Breakfast: Cup of All Bran, 6 oz. Skim milk, coffee with creamer and sweetener.
Lunch: My wife left this morning for a convention in Austin so I had to eat by myself. I decided to go to Poor Richards with the intention of getting a vegetable plate. I don't eat enough vegetables.
While waiting to order, the thought occurred to me to tell you about Poor Richards. It really is interesting. Poor Richards is a simple Home style cooking restaurant in Plano that has connections to the whole world....Japan, England, France, Russia ..the whole world. It is frequented by many regulars who have been coming weekly for many years. Dave Manders, center for the Dallas Cowboys in the early seventies, still frequents the place. So does Bill Donahue, a local plain speaking farmer dressed usually in his dirty overalls, who still raises wheat and hay on what little land he still owns and leases around Plano - anything large enough on which he can turn one of his giant John Deere tractors with their 30 yard wide plows. He's probably got more money than he can count but he's still a down-to-earth country good-ole boy, who frequently explores caves in New Mexico and hunts bear and fishes in Alaska. Howeve, most of the patrons, who stand in a line that winds around once in the resturant and usually out the door and down the side walk, are just ordinary people. So how is Poor Richard's connected to the whole world?
Poor Richard's started in 1973 as Park Mall Restaurant. Plano was still just a little town of 12,000 on the southern border of Collin County about 20 miles from downtown Dallas. Plano was just beginning to feel the growth created by Texas Instruments, which was the first to make transistors in the early sixties for less than $1.00 a piece out of a converted farm house in Richardson. By 1970 there were 3 large buildings spanning over 100 acres of the land surrounding the farm house which had since been torn down. They had become an international company. It had also spurned the growth of numerous small start up companies in the area. Plano was surrounded by thousands of acres of farm land that was being developed by many builders. Many of those would meet at the Park Mall Restaurant for coffee in the morning before starting their busy day. That is the time that Richard, an school teacher of 15 years, bought the restaurant and renamed it Poor Richard's after Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac. Quotes from the almanac like "Don't criticize your husband's judgment, he married you" appear on the menu and walls. It was already becoming a very busy place firmly established by the repeat business of the builders and their workers.
One of those builders was Joe Duncan, a Plano Fireman who started his building business on his off days. Joe was very successful as a builder in the seventies, but during the real estate down-turn during the Carter years of the late Seventies he fell on hard times. He had contracted to build a large house on fifty acres in Parker which is east of Plano and just before he completed it the customer ran out of money and Joe was stuck with the house. Joe had to sell everything else and move into the house himself and complete it. I moved to Parker in 1979. Joe's place was a a mile from my house as the crow flies and I could see the 2nd story across the fields on which Bill Donahue raised wheat.
The highway in front of Joe's house was one of the ways to my office. While not the quickest I would often go that way and admire the beauty of the place. It was a beautiful 2 story frame house set on 50 acres of lush green coastal bermuda pasture. There were a 3 white horse stables behind the house. A black wooden fence surrounded the entire 50 acres and about ten horses and a few cattle grazed on the bermuda. There was a long paved driveway to the house lined with oak trees and at the highway was a wrought iron fence and a wrought iron arch above the drive that read "Duncan Farm". I fantasized about having such a place. I didn't know Joe at the time and I thought he must be very wealthy. Actually he was nearly bankrupt and about to lose the farm. Fortunately for him a film studio located in Los Colinas a industrial development near Dallas, wanted to use his house to make a film. There was now enough money for him to hang on to the farm.
I first met Joe at a meeting between he and officers of the then recently formed Parker Volunteer Fire Department. I was the Fire Marshall. The meeting was to discuss how Joe could help the fire department. Having been a fireman himself he had empathy for our efforts. He was a big help. Through his indirect generosity we were able to purchase a modern refurbished FMC fire engine to replace the 1949 LaFrance, which had seen its better days. Joe later sold his place for $18 million and retained a note for 25 acres south of the house. When the new owner lost the house and defaulted on the note to him, Joe built pads on the acreage and turned it into a "Trade Days" facility. The last time I saw Joe, he was riding on a four wheeler, dressed in his usual western clothes and boots with a red bandanna around his neck. He told me the Trade Days effort was not going to make it. He and his son who recently graduated from college, were trading in commodities. He proudly pointed to the satellite antenna installed on the office he had built for the Trade Day venture and how they were linked to real-time market data. I don't know how that venture turned out, the last time I saw Joe he was riding away on the four wheeler.
How does all this relate to Poor Richards connection to the whole world? Well one day before I had ever met Joe, I drove past his farm and to my surprise there was a new sign above the drive. The sign above the driveway, belonging to this builder that drank coffee and ate breakfast everyday at Poor Richards, instead of reading "Duncan Farms" had been changed by the film company to read "Southfork Ranch".
By the way since they serve breakfast all the time, I ended up ordering the Protein Lovers Breakfast, four scrambled eggs with cheese (I ordered extra cheese), 2 sausage patties and a sliced tomato and drank 3 cups of coffee while reminiscing. Maybe a vegetable plate another day.
Dinner: Salmon steak marinated in lemon juice and fried in a little Granola oil, stirr fried vegetables and slice of whole wheat with a little margarine. Diet Lipton Green Tea to drink. I miss my wife.
Exercise: Lifted weights for 40 minutes. Peak Heartrate 140 beats per minute, Avg HR 112 bpm. The equipment at the gym is equipped with Fitlynx sensors and workout monitoring system. Since the new software was installed ,I stopped getting the emails with my elephants, deisel locomotives and Statue of Libertys. I really miss them. Leave me a comment if you want to know more.
1 comment:
Post a Comment