Opportunity Knocks Twice; Chapter 14

Editor's Note: Utah Pulse is serializing the book, 'Opportunity Knocks Twice,' by Don Hale, as told to Mark Hale. We'll publish one chapter a week. You'll enjoy the wit and wisdom of one of Utah's great entrepreneurs, founder of Hires Big H. To buy the book, click here.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Politics

Back in my high school days my father ran for Salt Lake County Commissioner. Even though he was favored, he lost, which he took very hard. He encouraged me, however, to run for a political office. My dad always said, “Turn a bad situation into a good one.”

So I ran for the state legislature. I walked my district and met a lot of people. People knew me from Hale’s Market and that helped. Fortunately, I won, and, fortunately, I qualified to serve. According to Utah State law, representatives in the legislature had to be 25 years of age when sworn in. The elections were held in November 1942; I turned 25 on December 15, 1942, so I barely became 25 by the time January’s sessions started. I served two great terms, from 1943 to 1947.

Early in the 1980s, I received a call from former Governor Calvin Rampton, a neighbor and friend of mine, who asked if I could meet him and Governor Scott Matheson for breakfast. I told him, “Certainly” Upon meeting, they asked if I would run for county commissioner in the upcoming November elections. This is the office my father had run for years earlier. I told the two governors that I would consider it. Later, Frank Moss, a former United States Senator, also called to encourage me to run. Frank said, “Don, you ought to do this for your dad.”
After going back and forth, I decided not to do it. Frankly, I was just not that enamored with politics at the time to run for office. The county commissioner’s position would require that I work full-time to be effective. I felt like my business needed me, and I was not ready to leave it. Plus, I had been thinking about starting a small Mexican restaurant on the very southeast corner of our Fourth South, Seventh East property. One of my boys and I, along with the manager at Hale’s Market, had already been to California to check out Mexican restaurants.
As time went on, I regretted the decision not to run. It actually haunted me a bit to have turned down these men who had given so much to our state. Opportunity knocked again, and I did not answer. It bothered me that I thought only of my own situation. I also thought about how good the community had been to me. I vowed that if a similar opportunity came again, I would give it much more consideration.

That opportunity did come again. In 1989, Governor Rampton called again to see if I would run for the seventh district seat in the Salt Lake City Council. This time, I reasoned that since I had been so fortunate, I needed to give something back to my community. I also knew that I could not keep postponing it. I was not getting younger, I was getting older (even though I will never really believe that).

You are never old until you think you are.

I called Governor Rampton back and told him I would run.

Shirley and I had a great time walking our district, going door to door meeting folks. Many did not know me personally, but they had heard about Hires Drive-In and that name recognition seemed to help. Shirley became a great campaigner—people just liked Shirley. Fortunately, we won in the primary against a very popular incumbent, and that momentum, coupled with more hard work, helped us prevail in the November general election. I was a young 72 years old when I took office in January of 1990.

I had a good experience in public service on the Salt Lake City Council. I met a lot of great people and developed some rich friendships with those on the council. Council meetings were twice weekly and required both preparation time and hearing time. Consequently, I learned a lot about the issues affecting my city, and I tried to bring some business perspective to Salt Lake City’s legislative business. Hopefully, my years of business experience and life experience helped the council and the city. Council members quite often had different views on issues, and we did not always agree, but one of the hallmarks of the council during my four years was our ability to be agreeable, even when disagreeing.