Roads To Success 2.2

A Little Extra Cash

Boise, Idaho is a rural community in the western United States.  Several technology companies have headquarters or division offices here, but historically local business has been centered around agriculture and ranching.  Boise has been home to Jerry Caven for most of his life.

Jerry is literally the last of a dying breed, an honest-to-goodness cattle rancher.  But the trail leading to the ranch wasn't a straight one.  We shot most of Jerry’s Secrets Of Success interview at the home he built on a hillside overlooking Boise, and he told us how it all came to be.

At Northwest Nazarene University Jerry majored in biology with a minor in education.  In his freshman year at NNU he met a young lady named Muriel Parsons.  By his senior year, Jerry and Muriel were married.  Upon graduation Jerry began a career as a schoolteacher, and he and Muriel wasted no time in starting their family.  Actually, they took a super charged approach, having five children in five years. 

Jerry taught science and math, and coached the football and basketball teams at a local junior high school.  At age twenty-nine, in his sixth year of teaching he found that he was barely getting by financially.  “When I was teaching school in my sixth year in Boise I was making $4,600 a year.  And for a wife and five children that was not a sufficient amount,” Jerry told the camera.

Jerry began looking for a way to bring in a little extra cash to help his family.  A part time job seemed to be a logical solution.  “I went to the want ads in the paper and saw the name McDonald’s,” he recalled.

The name immediately registered with Jerry because his family often bought McDonald’s fast food.  Knowing that the restaurant was open in the evenings, Jerry reasoned that he might be able to teach during the day, and work for the fast food company in the evenings and weekends.  He decided to apply for a job.

Jerry was in for a disappointing surprise.  It turned out that McDonald’s was not looking for part time help.  They weren’t even looking for full time help.  Somehow the only McDonald’s restaurant in Boise had managed to go bankrupt.  McDonald’s had taken it back from the franchisee, and with no other McDonald’s units within 500 miles of Boise, the corporation was eager to sell it to a new operator.

Bernie Baxter, the McDonald’s representative charged with the task, encouraged Jerry to purchase the franchise.  In 1965 it was a bargain at only $60,000 dollars.  “Immediately I explained to him that I had no money and I wanted a job, not a franchise,” Jerry told us.  “You don’t understand, I explained to him, I don’t have six dollars let alone $60,000.”

Mr. Baxter returned to McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago and Jerry thought it was all over.  He continued his part time job hunt not realizing that a gift that could only come from heaven would soon change his life forever.

© 2012 Philip Kassel