01/09/1989 Meeting (3) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS January 9, 1989 Mayor Jeff Miller You have just given me one of life's great opportunities, and that is the subject I want to talk to you about this evening: opportunities. I began learning about opportunities when I was just 11 years old. I was the youngest of a family of five living in a rough neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. My father was a parts salesman and my mother worked in a bakery. And one of my lifetime heroes comes from that period of my life: a man by the name of Sam Muscal. When I talk about my personal heroes, I list the influence of Sam Muscal right along with that of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Saint Fran- cis, Thomas Jefferson, and even Jesus. Sam Muscal was a big man: a meat cutter by trade, a German Jew who was lucky enough to escape the Nazis during a ghastly journey to Dachau. And Sam ran a three-aisle grocery store in our neighborhood, and he got to know me because I spent a lot of time there shopping for my family. Even today, I can hear that rich German accent and see those big, gentle hands as he would lift half a beef as if it was a toothpi ck. e One day Sam offered me a job and eight hours on Saturday, all the Pepsi I could drink. drink a lot of Pepsi! as a stock boy: five hours a day on weekdays and the pay was great--fifty cents a day plus Now that was a bargain for me because I could I remember Sam would occasionally call me into the back room and hand me a sandwich, and once in a while he would put a hot pepper in it. He'd do that just for the joy of watching my expression as I tried to act very cool eati~g that hot pepper. Sam would sometimes leave change around the store to see whether the boys he hired would report it when they swept up or discovered it on the counter, and I always did. For me, five years of working for Sam Muscal was one of life's great opportu- nities. It was Sam who took me off the street and gave me an opportunity to go straight. Sam Muscal taught me the work ethic. Sam Musca' taught me to respect all kinds of people. Sam Muscal gave me a stiff determination to succeed. e Tonight, you the people of Eugene, like Sam Muscal 35 years ago, have given me a great opportunity. And I can think of no more promising place to re- ceive this opportunity than in a city that is accustomed to recognizing opportunities and to making the most of them. It was by recognizing and seizing opportunities that the people of Eugene were successful in building the Hult Center, in widening 6th and 7th avenues, in constructing Autzen Stadium and renovating Hayward field, in planning the Riverfront Research Park, in developing one of the West's finest school systems, in designing riverside parks and paths, in expanding a modest air- port into a regional transportation center, and in developing a unique part-