The Millionaire Dairy Truck Driver

This is a true story.

My great grandpa was like King Midas. Everything he touched turned to gold.

At least that's what my dad said, and my dad ain't no liar.

You wouldn't think it's true, because he drove a dairy truck delivering milk and cheese to grocery stores and mini marts.

That was his real job...

... but what he really loved to do was farm.

Raise cattle.

Pigs.

Stuff like that.

I don't know how he got money, but he bought a farm.

Right outside Rochester, New York.

This was in the 40s.

Right after WWII.

About a year or so after buying it...

...He got a knock on the door.

These 2 guys in business suits said, "Hey, is this your farm?"

He's like, "Yeah."

They said, " We'd like to talk about making an offer to buy your farm."

Suprised, my great Grandpa said, "What?"

The guys replied, "Yeah. We're starting a new company and we're going to build a factory. We're going to produce goods here."

They tried to explain to him what product they were going to make.

He didn't really understand what they were talking about.

Some kind of newer technology.

They were going to offer him shares in the company.

Or cash.

He took the cash because he said, "that's a great offer, I'm going to look for another farm."

With the money, he bought an even bigger farm than before.

400 acres.

Well, the name of the company that he turned the shares down from?

Xerox.

And the "new technology" they were gonna produce there was the copying machine.

The very first copying machine.

So yeah, the first copying machines were apparently made on my great grandpa's farm.

He was a millionaire when he died, but it's hard to say how many millions he turned away by not taking shares.

Anyway, his new farm, had a nice lil' farmhouse on it.

A beautiful red barn. Just like the kind you see in pictures.

Back in the 60s, the country road in front of it was never really traveled.

It was peaceful and quit.

At Christmas time, my dad and his siblings went out to visit.

They'd go sledding.

And ride horses.

My great grandpa "Midas" used to come out to the farm every day after driving the dairy truck.

But my step grandmother was a city girl.

She didn't have anything to do with the farm.

She wouldn't live there.

She wouldn't come out there.

My dad and his siblings would go out there and stay sometimes for a month or so at a time during the summers.

Midas would come to the farm every day after work.

And one day, at his new farm, he got a random letter from a company.

It said, "Midas, we understand that you own this farm. We're a waste company and we want to start a new kind of waste disposal. What we're gonna do is mine methane gas from the garbage. And when we get done, it'll be a park like setting. You'll never even know that we were here. We want to rent some acres of your farm."

I can't remember how much they gave him per month/acre, but they started with 20 acres.

Then they wanted another 20 acres.

Then another 20.

And Midas figured, "why not let them?"

He was making boat loads of money.

Finally they got to the point where they didn't want to lease just that one section.

He ended up leasing the whole farm with the house and barn on it.

After he died, my dad's stepgrandmother inherited everything.

She just sold the entire property to them.

And the name of the company was Waste Management.

My dad or grandma said they didn't want any of it-- so don't freak out thinking I'm rich or something lol.

I'm just writing this down so I can remember the story my dad told me.

I think it's pretty crazy!