Where's The Beef?
Wendy's had Margret Peller in the 80's asking everyone, "Where's the beef?" They also had square hamburger patties back then, too. And OJ Simpson was still running through airports for Avis wearing Dingo cowboy boots.
Another 80's feature was Kirk Breed running CalExpo State Fair and Exhibition wearing the boots and sporting the hat to compliment the Oklahoma cowboy who just recently passed away. I remember Lee and I crashing the press luncheon for the Neil Young concert which was the inaugural event for the Bill Graham Amphitheater at The CalExpo site. I guess I was especially bold that day as I marched right up to Kirk's table, introduced myself, saw an empty chair and then rhetorically asked, "Is this seat taken? Mind if I sit here? Hey, Lee! Grab a chair and bring it up here!" Following that brazen act I went right after Kirk cutting right to the heart of why I was there which was to some way get the legendary Bushy Lake Motocross track operating again. Considering the controversy surrounding the environmentally protected nature area just over the levee on the southwest side of the fairgrounds toward the American River.
The controversy shrouding this area and Mr. Breed was almost a career killer. After one major MX event in the early seventies and a hand full of local AMA/District 36 races the track was shut down followed by Kirk Breed's in-your-face move of cutting down some oak trees and cotton woods in the woods surrounding the pond-size "lake" thereby disrupting the habitat of the federally-protected Cotton Tail Deer species along with a coyote or fox that is native to the area and I think there were turtles involved as well as some flora and fauna. The Eco-freaks were especially vocal at that time and shit hit the fan with Breed taking it full force to the face and Governor Jerry Brown (his first tenure) catching some blow-by as the press fueled the flames.
I informed Kirk that I wanted to promote some events at the Bushy Lake facility and would like to know if this was a real possibility or not. He exclaimed, "Well anythings possible, son! Ya' just gotta wanta do it enough!" By the time the luncheon was over with Kirk and I were best of friends with his people going to get in touch with my people and we'd do lunch again real soon...
The only times our paths ever crossed again was at the press luncheon for the Sacramento Mile and the first two CalExpo Stadium Cross events that I co-announced. Before I ever promoted any CalExpo event I ended up walking away from the evolving sport of motocross. Nowadays it's Supercross and the hybrid Extreme MX with back-flips, front flips and a myriad of Ariel Acrobatics that dominate the attention in the sport. Once I knew them all and where they came from and how they got there and sometimes even where they were headed. Now I can't even tell you what the classes are...
Some times the changes are good; sometimes there for the good. And other times the changes are good for nothing...
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