Dear McBob etc etc a snitpit in time
Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 7:25 pm
I've got a story you might be interested in.
I heard an interview with Mr. McCulloch in 1968 or 1969 on a tv show on a financial station in Los Angeles that I've always remembered. I had just moved to Los Angeles from Purdue University in the state of Indiana. Every year, there was a big kart race between all of the housing units and fraternities on campus. 15-20,000 attendees. All of the carts had to be hand made by the students and they all had to use McCulloch engines. So I was familiar with the name McCulloch when I moved to Los Angeles.
So one day I'm watching an interview show on a financial TV station and they are interviewing the CEO of McCulloch. That got my attention. The focus of the interview was why had he just sold his property and manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles next to Los Angeles International Airport and moved to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, Lake Havasu. I seem to remember him saying that he wanted bigger, newer facilities and wanted to go to a less crowded, less hectic place for himself and his employees to live and work. But then this is what I've always remembered it. He said that when he bought the land next to the airport after WW II, he paid little for it. But upon selling it in the late 1960's, after the airport area had become highly developed, the corporation made more profit on the sale of the land than the cumulative profit of the corporation in all the years leading up to that. He joked that in a financial sense, all of his and his employee's work throughout all those years ultimately came down to just being a way of holding on to this piece of land.
I've never forgotten that story.
Brad Smith
Los Angeles, California
I heard an interview with Mr. McCulloch in 1968 or 1969 on a tv show on a financial station in Los Angeles that I've always remembered. I had just moved to Los Angeles from Purdue University in the state of Indiana. Every year, there was a big kart race between all of the housing units and fraternities on campus. 15-20,000 attendees. All of the carts had to be hand made by the students and they all had to use McCulloch engines. So I was familiar with the name McCulloch when I moved to Los Angeles.
So one day I'm watching an interview show on a financial TV station and they are interviewing the CEO of McCulloch. That got my attention. The focus of the interview was why had he just sold his property and manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles next to Los Angeles International Airport and moved to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, Lake Havasu. I seem to remember him saying that he wanted bigger, newer facilities and wanted to go to a less crowded, less hectic place for himself and his employees to live and work. But then this is what I've always remembered it. He said that when he bought the land next to the airport after WW II, he paid little for it. But upon selling it in the late 1960's, after the airport area had become highly developed, the corporation made more profit on the sale of the land than the cumulative profit of the corporation in all the years leading up to that. He joked that in a financial sense, all of his and his employee's work throughout all those years ultimately came down to just being a way of holding on to this piece of land.
I've never forgotten that story.
Brad Smith
Los Angeles, California