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"Didn't I always have a smile on my face?," Puckett told SI back in '96. "I may not have been the prettiest thing in the world, but I gave all I had."
SI.com - Writers - One of a kind (cont.) - Tuesday March 7, 2006 12:08AM.
An excerpt from an interview with Joe Diamond, in the Link: The Seattle Times: Local News: At age 99, parking-lot mogul reminisces.
Q: Most people in Seattle know you from Diamond Parking, but you were also a successful lawyer. How did you get your first job after law school?
A: It was the Depression era and there weren't any jobs available. Well, I got turned down at every law office in Seattle. I contacted them all. I'd take the elevator to the top floor of a building, walk down the stairs and stop in at every law office there.
Finally, I decided I'd like to get a job with Caldwell and Lycette. Hugh Caldwell had been mayor of Seattle and city attorney. He was very accomplished, an excellent lawyer. So I went in to see him and he said he didn't need anybody.
I continued looking and got nowhere, so I went back to see him and said, "Well, Mr. Caldwell, I know you don't need anybody, but I want to learn how to practice law and I'd like to learn from your office. I don't need to be paid anything. I just want to see what you do and how you do it."
He said, "We don't have any room for you."
So I said, "I'll just go in the library and hang my hat up, and let me do it for 30 days. And after 30 days, you won't have to fire me. I'll leave."
So he said, "If you want to hang your hat in the library, help yourself."
So I did that for 30 days and the time was up and I had to leave.
Well, he didn't want me to leave then. He asked me how much he was paying me.
I told him I wasn't getting any money, and he says, "Well, you're getting $100 a month now," which was pretty good pay at that time. "I'll get you an office so you don't have to sit in the library."
So he put me to work.
This is one of my favorite quotes, overheard in a small diner in Pioneer Square. When I return to Seattle, I will get the name of the restaurant and post it here.
One crisp May morning with the sun showing it's lovely rays, a white businessman is sitting at a restaurant counter complaining that his life isn't the greatest.
With a deep southern accent, the African-American counterperson says to him: "What chou complainin' about...? You on top o' the ground, tha' ground's not on top o' you!!"
Amazing (RF). Words to live by, eh?
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