everybody this is Bruce here to my youtube channel
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video hey everybody how you doing it's Bruce here with traveling with Bruce how
you doing today I got a story for a today that took place about about 10
years ago maybe 12 years ago actually and I'll never forget it
it's amazing anyway the setting I'm gonna tell you where this took place I
used to live in Palm Desert California for a time and you ever get the chance
to live in Palm Desert California taking there's a reason why that area is
occupied by some of the richest people in roll you got Palm Springs then you
have Cathedral City right next to it 240 thousand population cities Rancho
Mirage Palm Desert the Indian Wells LaQuinta
Bermuda Dunes in do the whole the whole valley is about a quarter million people
and more wealth than you can can imagine streets are clean crime rate pretty low
a very nice place and the weather for let's say nine months of the year
fantastic first three months that you're kind of hot but for the other nine
months quite nice and that's why the the well-to-do of the world have their
winter house in the in the desert as we like to call it anyway I was living in
Palm Desert which is right near Indian Wells and I wanted to go golfing with a
buddy of mine it would come down to visit me from Canada and the routine
that we had at the time was we would wait until about 1:30 in the afternoon
or so 1:00 in the afternoon and head to a golf course and get what's called the
Twilight rate so you can golf for all you can all the golf you can get in say
starting at two o'clock in the afternoon all the
all the die-hard golfers and and of course you have to forgive me 10 15
years ago I call people my age old people anyway you're a man my late you
know late 40s early 50s and I'm calling 65 and seven-year-olds old anyway these
guys and girls they went tee off at seven eight nine in the morning and
they'd be done twelve you know and then they'd have lunch and socialize go home
have a nap and get ready for dinner not a bad life well being the cheapskate
that I am and being the non rich guy being a poor man in a rich man's town my
buddy and I we plotted our strategy that if we had a two o'clock Twilight rate
and to give an idea how much this is $25 you get a golf cart you go fall you want
starting at two o'clock and we get in 18 holes because there's nobody on the golf
course the last golfers teed off at noon and they're you know on the back nine by
the time we start on the front line so we didn't catch anybody it's fantastic
anyway we get there an hour before that before the 2:00 o'clock time we get fed
about 1:00 and where we were golfing in this particular day in in 2005 it was I
think February maybe March and we were at the Indian Wells Golf Resort and you
ever look it up on Google you'll find gorgeous pictures of this resort that's
absolutely amazing it's a it's a 36-hole facility if I recall and there are two
hotels there there's a Westin and there's a Hyatt Regency and the land
that the golf course is on is owned by the city of Indian Wells and at least at
this time it was back in you know five so the city of Indian Wells population
of 10,000 people on this stretch of land that they put this championship golf
course on and we get there an hour before we'd get valet parking that was
standard fare you just pull up your car and the young guy come give you ticket
and then you grab your bags and they would take your bags to the starter
Shack if they want you wanted them to but we'd say no no no we're gonna go to
the driving range so you grab our golf bags we'd walk over to the driving range
and hit a hit a bucket of balls and then go
to the putting green and put away a little bit and that would be about you
know quarter to two and then we'd soccer our way into the clubhouse and we'd see
the golf pro or the guy behind the counter and we would pay our twenty-five
dollars for our unlimited golf starting at two o'clock in the afternoon with an
electric power card and so we paid the guy and made our way out to the cart and
put the bags on there and had our last little bathroom break got ourselves a
little beverage to enjoy and we drive and we we have to drive over this little
bridge over kind of a kind of a wash that separates the clubhouse from the
actual golf course itself and so you drive across this this bridge elevated
bridge and we get over there and the starter's waiting for us and they still
have a starter to see you off at two o'clock at the Twilight rate yeah that's
how fancy this club is most clubs would just say go we don't we don't want to
see anyone anyway the starter is there and uh and
we noticed that there's uh there's a couple like three folks in front of us
that are getting ready to tee off and he said yeah they're the first group off at
two o'clock and we said yeah heck yeah let him go
we don't care let him let him play because we're not fast golfers at all
and you know after the second third hole if it's just my buddy night we might
start pulling out two or three golf balls at a time and now we're taking two
or three shots per you know two or three tee shots and then you know find the
balls put them in the middle of the fairway and then shoot again you know
just we're just hacking around having a good
old time it's not a serious game for money or anything like that anyway so
these folks are teeing off and off they
go and the starter says to uh say listen I
just got a call on my walkie-talkie here from the from the pro shop there's a
couple coming along that I'm gonna put you with it's a husband and wife but
only the wife is playing golf the husband is driving the cart you know
that's alright we said hey no problem because you take your chances when it's
when it's a Twilight break you know for 25 almost even last questions you you
get what you get you take what you get so um
so he says yeah I think you're gonna like these folks they were here
yesterday and they're they're elderly but they're they're quite nice oh great
okay and and then he says to me I think you might find that gentleman driving
the car I think you might find him quite interesting I said oh you know now you
got my curiosity going what what's this what's this guy all about he says well
you'll find out for yourself but he's quite well-to-do and think he's gonna
enjoy his company okay great so anyway minute or two later we see a
carp coming across the bridge that we just came across and here's a gentleman
wearing a fedora hat and a woman sitting beside him and once one bag of golf
clubs behind the behind them it's her bag and they come up to the tee box and
she comes out and and and and she comes right up to us and introduces herself
Esther is her name and oh hello Esther I'm Bruce as my buddy Gary pleasure to
meet you this is my husband Jack well hello jack and I'm looking at this guy I
don't recognize him it's a elderly gentleman I found that at the time I
believe he was 96 years of age something like that and he had the fedora on very
very stylish and then he had on a kind of a jacket type of thing and he was
comfortably driving he says forgive me for not getting out of the car and I'm
just driving I said oh not a problem at all I didn't know he was 96 years old at
that moment but I could tell he was quite a elderly but he was he was
together he knew everything that was going on he was certainly not senile or
anything like that he was sharp anyway we had to wait for that other party to
get going and they they're there in the fairway now hitting their second shots
so no big deal and so we're kissing a little bit and and my buddy Gary he's
he's not as shy as I am perhaps or reserved he's in a little more 4/4 right
he says he says to Esther and to Jackie says what's what's your last name and so
he says that Jack says my name is Jack Simplot and Gary says
yeah he says you know the starter he mentioned that that you're quite
well-to-do what do you do he says oh he says I'm known for french fries I'm
looking at my buddy but he's looking at me and you're known for french fries he
says yeah he says my company sells 35% of all the French fries McDonald's sells
worldwide yeah you are well-to-do Wow well we this started the conversation we
were having a so much fun and he seems to enjoy us asking him questions and I
think he got a kick out of the fact that we didn't know who the heck this guy was
and so we needed to know everything about we had no idea you know I didn't
have any time to research this poor guy I don't know anything about it just men
with two minutes ago so we tee off off the first tee and and we're playing and
we get to the second tee and you know we got a couple minutes to wait while the
group ahead of us is putting out two par 3 and we find out that he's from Idaho
and that they've come down from Idaho to the desert because the the tennis
tournament is on now over here in Indian Wells it's every every Eddings every
February and they're down for the tennis tournament and they came down with two
of the three company jets to enjoy themselves for the tennis treatment so
of course there was an entourage and but today we were only meeting Jack and
Esther and I thought to myself jeez the kinds of multi-billionaire I hadn't
figured out yet how much but he's a multi player and they're coming in for
the toilet paper rate at $25 and only one of them is golfing I thought yeah he
could they can afford anything they can afford to be a member of Bighorn just
over in Palm Desert that would be a quarter million dollars membership fee
and then your annual dues and stuff and you know they could afford anything and
yet here the art plank paying $25 for her to play round of golf in the toilet
and it brought back him a memory of my father who said to me
it's not much money you make it's how much you spent that's how rich you are
and I thought well that pertains to everybody of years in a living example
any way would play on and and as the holes go by we we chat a little here a
little there and finally my buddy says well how did
you ever become the guy to supply McDonald's with 35% of all the french
fries of face that they settle and he told us the story about how he left
school and grade 8 and is it was a tough time so still literally mid-twenties ish
and he he worked his tail off and one day he he was able to afford some so I
think he bought some pigs honks and he grew up some gruesome hogs and sold them
and then he bought a made enough money to be able to buy a farm and he started
growing potatoes okay so by the time the the 30s came around mister Simplot had
had been successful enough raising hogs and now racing potatoes where he had
been able to expand his farm and he was able to create a plant that specialized
in dehydrating vegetables a dehydration plant lowers and this was new technology
for for the 30s and in late 30s mid 30s and so on and the depression was on and
he was picking up farms all over the place on the cheap and he was producing
hogs and producing potatoes and beans and other crops but he was also
dehydrating them and this meant that his product could be sold over a large area
of the United States rather than just his local community only this allowed
him to get out of Boise Idaho and over to Washington State or sell over to
Chicago or sell down in st. Louis didn't have to worry about refrigeration of
potatoes keeping him fresh and that type of thing he could dehydrate his product
and then it could be rehydrated just with water anywhere and it would keep
for a long time and of course in 1940 41 the United States entered the war the
Second World War and he became one of the largest suppliers
of dehydrated foods to the US military and you know he couldn't grow enough I
mean everything he grew he could sell and so he really benefited from his
vision and and his his Drive and and his ability to to seek out business and he
did that you know through the 40s and into the 50s and so on so that's that's
the the dehydration story in a nutshell and by the time the the sixties rolled
around he had perfected a way to grow russet potatoes which are the favorite
potatoes for french fries by the way russet potatoes and how he could flash
freeze them and then you could pop them into into a fast fryer and produce
french fries and he met Ray Kroc and in 1967 he and mr. Ray Kroc the founder the
movie the founder shook hands handshake deal you're gonna supply my restaurants
with french fries all across America in 1967 and this of course is just before
the massive explosion of McDonald's you know obviously globally but at this
point was still growing out in the United States so as McDonald's grew sim
mister Simplot and his factory grew with it and then as time went on mr. Simplot
bought farms and food processing factories around the world including
Australia and as time went on he became you know a billionaire
obviously privately held company never went public no other shareholders and
and that's a short little history of mr. simple and his company now here we are
on the golf course and we're slowly learning all this information and we say
to my buddy assisted to him and mr. Sablan and his wife Esther well your
Esther you're quite a bit younger than Jack aren't you she goes oh yes I am so
I pipe in and I said well are you the trophy wife and them
and laughs they thought this was great I don't think anyone had the guts to ever
do this to him and he thought this was fantastic he looked at her he said you
are my trophy wife and I said well you know everybody needs a trophy wife you
know what the heck why all this was delightful she was sixty something and
he was ninety something and yes she was thirty years his junior and just a great
couple and they were just so much fun as it turned out we finished the ninth hole
and that's when they called it a day she was happy just getting in nine holes and
they were headed back to their probably their hotel and catch up with the family
and they loved they they thanked us very much for the company and they really
enjoyed having it we told them what a treat it was I I just couldn't believe I
was shaking the hands of a multi-billionaire and it was great so
off they went and my buddy and I looked at each other and went well how about
that this is something you don't get every day anyway after we got home back
to my place we went on the internet then looked up the history of mr. szimpla and
we found that he was worth seven and a half billion dollars so that's just
unbelievable I'm looking at my buddy I'm going should I wash this hand I don't
know I don't want to lose the luck or anything maybe some of this successful
rub off but I tell you it was a great meeting and a treat to meet these two
people and I I'm pretty sure they got a kick out of us because I don't know how
other people would Eve even broach the subject of their age and his wealth and
his like being younger and all that sort of stuff and anyway was it was a lovely
meeting too to meet them both and that is my story about meeting at the time
North America's richest oldest person richest living oldest person because at
age 96 were seven half-billion there was no one older or richer than this guy at
that time so that's pretty cool and it was a treat to meet him and and
we loved it anyway that's my story thanks for watching traveling with Bruce
I guess today it's traveling back in time and if you liked the video give me
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