Scott Perry Jr., Scott Perry, Jr. Sanitation Service
Scott Perry, Jr.
Scott Perry, Jr. Sanitation Service
Words of Wisdom
- There are no barriers to perseverance; if you don’t persevere, you aren’t going to do anything. You can’t say, “The system won’t let me do this and all that stuff.” Well, what are you doing? Are you complaining and not trying?
- It’s not where you came from; it’s where you are going.
- You have challenges, but you just don’t give up. Sometimes you have to burn the midnight oil to make things happen.
- To make anything happen, you have to do the best you can and be the best you can be. You have to be truthful. Whatever you are involved in, try to do a good job, be faithful at what you do, and that will take you anywhere. It doesn’t matter what color you are.
- I was just doing what I was doing, and I did it right. Individuals I met played such a role in making me what I am today.
- If you want to achieve something, you can, but don’t wait for somebody else to do it for you. You have to make something happen.
ELS Mentor Interview
Scott Perry, Jr.,
Scott Perry, Jr. Sanitation Service
Date: 17 August 2009
Location: Alexandria, Louisiana
Interviewer: Gary Perkins, Felix Mathews
Gary: “Tell me where you grew up and where you went to school.”
“I was born in what you might call the Latanier Community. That’s Highway 1, South of Alexandria. My daddy was a sharecropper and we lived on one of two places at that time. One belonged to a Mr. Tom Penny. I don’t guess you would call it a plantation, but we stayed there for quite some time. The other was owned by Mr. Stevens and was closer to Highway 1, which at that time, was really a pig trail.”
Gary: “Where did you go to school?”
“I went to school at Western, which was a one-room school. Every day we would walk approximately five miles each way. It didn’t seem such a long distance because there were quite a few kids walking to and from school. In 1943 or 1944, we moved into the south part of Alexandria, near the old Independent Gin. We had one of the first homes built in that area. My daddy bought a lot and we went to ALCO (Alexandria Lumber Company), a sawmill, bought one of the company houses, tore it down, and transported the lumber to the lot we had in Alexandria.”
Gary: “Yes, they were closing that mill.”
“That’s how we built a home. Moving into Alexandria, it was a different atmosphere, even though we were kind of like on a little island, because we had one of the only houses in what is now the Silver City area. And, as far as schooling was concerned, we were thinking about stories I’d heard about Peabody’s bullies. I was fortunate, even though my older sisters and brothers went to Peabody, to be enrolled in what we called a Lutheran school on lower Third Street.
“I went there for two years. We had Catechism one morning and Bible history the next, but after two years, I moved up to Peabody. I think I might have been in about the 5th grade at Peabody, and really got involved. I didn’t know all these things were going to mean anything in later years, but I became a member of the High Y Club and a Thespian of the Thespian Guild. I also was a member of the school choir; I always tried to sing tenor.
“I think my tenure at Peabody was a part of already receiving my destiny. I got to know the Principal real well, and somehow he took me under his wing. He was a strict Principal when it came to discipline, and I admired that. I was somewhat behind when I came from Latanier.”
Gary: “So where did you meet your wife?”
“I met my wife when we both lived in what we now call Silver City. She had a first cousin that was real young. I got to know him. He told me she was single, and I got a chance to go to her house. I never knew that one day she was going to be my wife.
“Her cousin and I killed a lot of rats. They cleared all that land in the Silver City area, and had big piles of limbs. We’d shake the bushes, big rats would come out, and the ones we caught, we’d kill on the spot. One experience I won’t forget is when a rat ran up my pants leg. I did quite a bit of dancing, but I got him out of there.
“I didn’t realize that my extracurricular activities at Peabody would really mean anything, but one of my teachers, the English teacher there, wanted to know whether I would be interested in dramatics. The play she wanted me, a little young skinny boy from Latanier, Louisiana, to be involved in was “One Foot in Heaven,” and I was offered the lead role. I studied hard, we had a little success with it, and we took the play to Winnfield.”
Gary: “And performed it there!”
“Yes, I was the Reverend Spence. He was a Methodist Minister who’d been moved from one church to another. He was at a dilapidated church, the ladies would give him trouble, and unemployed folks would call him sometimes and give him a lot of problems. That’s the role I played. From there, I got married and moved out to England Drive, where I currently live.”
Gary: “You moved out there in the 1950’s?”
“Yes, 1951. I’ve been there a long time. I never will forget, and I will always thank my wife’s relatives, because they had an old family house there, partially furnished. They moved out to California and said that whenever we got married, we could just move in.
“My wife’s mother passed when she was about nine or ten years old. One particular aunt of hers didn’t have any kids, but was just crazy about this little lady that I married. They told us, ‘We have fourteen pecan trees, you can just move in.’ She came in from California and bought a refrigerator and a washing machine. It was about the only house at that time that had a septic tank, so we didn’t have to go out to the outhouse.
“Our friends in Alexandria didn’t believe we were moving out to the country. The country was, ‘You know you are country; you’re not on the same level.’ My wife and I never were excited about living in the city, so it wasn’t a problem for us. The only thing we were trying to do was make it, so we dropped our net in this area. We didn’t have any rent to pay, and we had fourteen pecan trees.
“At that time, I was working at Alexandria Feed & Seed Store. I think I was taking $27.00 home a week, after deductions. My wife encouraged me to get my GED, which I did. In fact, I moved pretty fast through that. At graduation, I was Salutatorian.”
Gary: “Tell me how you got the idea of going in the garbage business.”
“I always had an ambition that I could better myself, whether it was garbage or anything else, but one morning around 3:00 a.m., this idea popped in my head about making trash collections. I guess it was one of those things I got in my mind that just stuck with me.
“I was working at Cappel Lumber Company at that time, and I went to work with that idea on my mind about ‘What if I could…’ Well, I started looking all around, even on my way to work and tried to see if there were trash cans running over at somebody’s house.
“I remember this guy coming in, the first customer we had that morning. He came in around 8:30 a.m. His name was Mr. Booth and he lived just above me. I shared with him what I thought was maybe something I could do. That was the first person I talked to, and he said, ‘You are the man I’ve been looking for.’ He said, ‘When you get off, come talk to me.’
“At that time, I’d managed to get an old car. I went to his place and we spent the dinner hour talking about the situation. He had a trailer court. When I left there, I had a customer. I had his trailer court, but no truck, no nothing. He showed me what is now Kelly Land. I think there was one house being built at that time, plus all of those houses that were around him. He said ‘These folks don’t have anybody.’
“You don’t know how I felt about that entire situation. Here my idea was really, really going. I went back to work thinking about what happened up to that point. I got the idea around 3 a.m., talked to one person about 8:30, and he told me I was the man he’d been looking for.”
Gary: “Kelly Land isn’t that far from your house, right?”
“They were building more houses. I think I mentioned about working at Alexandria Feed & Seed, but I also got word, or one of the guys at the seed store with me, told me about Pan American Engineers. I think they needed or were talking about getting somebody to clean their offices, a janitor. Mr. Cappel’s stepson was working there at that time and we talked about this.
“I don’t know, some folks you just get attached to, and he was one of them, just like Marion Chaney and all of them; they were there at that time. Toward the Fall, the feed store usually cut some of the employees. I was one of them because I was one of the younger ones, or had less years. I talked to Mr. Saunders Aymond, he was one of the draftsmen at Pan American Engineers, and he told me his stepfather was fixing to open a lumber shed. He told me I needed to go talk to him or he would talk to him for me. I got laid off from Alexandria Feed & Seed Store on a Friday, and went to work for Cappel Lumber Company the next Monday. I didn’t lose a day.
“I got to know Mr. Tom David, Sr. and his son, and the reason I’m saying all of this is because all of these individuals played a role in my success. I was working and everything went fine. I was still doing the janitorial thing at Pan American and also at Commercial Securities, where Ronnie Andries, Dewey Helverson, and Buddy Farrar worked.
“They didn’t have their own businesses at that time. Dewey was the assistant manager. I got to know those folks, and somehow they have been our contacts. Communication is still in place.
“I kept building on trash collection. Every time I would go out, if I was delivering lumber, I watched folk’s trashcans to see if they were running over. The first opportunity I got, I went back out there and talked to them, and they said, ‘Yes, we need somebody.’ I’d go back and pick up the next time, and someone else would say, ‘My son lives right down there and wants you to come down there, or my next-door neighbor wants you to come,’ and that’s the way it started, by word of mouth. I provided prompt and efficient service, and I tried to keep to that. I think that, if anything really made my business go, that was one of the things.
“Somewhere along that time, my wife told me I needed to go to Louisiana College and see about getting some continuing education courses. I agreed and took management and accounting classes. I earned certificates and that was the best thing that ever happened.”
Gary: “What is your wife’s first name?”
“Her name is Doris. She and I had quite a few of the same ideas. We weren’t street folks, never were. We tried to be thrifty and handle those funds we came up on.”
Gary: “Did she help you do the bookkeeping or anything when you were getting started?”
“Yes.”
Gary: “So she was involved in the business?”
“Yes, she was deeply involved. She used to tell me she was an underpaid employee. I said, ‘Well, you get the fringe benefits and you have me. How can you put a paycheck on that?’ We laughed about it, but she’s been right there. If I’m anything, she played a major role.
“I was just doing what I was doing, and I did it right. Individuals I met played such a role in making me what I am today. Things just kept happening. I got Boyce as a customer because somebody told them about me, and I kept them for 30 years, until I sold my company.”
Gary: “You made a lot of personal connections that stayed with you forever. I’m sure when you started running for political office, all those old connections were beneficial.”
“They were a major benefit. In fact, I’ll highlight a few things. As a Police Juror, I represent District I, which is the Garden District, plus around the airport, Walnut Grove, and others.”
Gary: “That you had picked up for all those years.”
“Oh, yes, they got the news that I was running. When they were paying me they said, ‘Well, we are praying for you.’ Everybody’s important to me, but I had some of the doctors, attorneys and jurors in Alexandria who helped me to get through the campaign.
“Things just kept happening. In 1986 and 1987, Delta Sigma Theta chose me for their Outstanding Minority Economic Development Award. Then, my banker, Bonnie Bolton, called me. She and I served on the board for the United Way. She said, ‘I’m not calling about the United Way, I’m calling to know if you would be Rapides Bank’s candidate for ‘Small Business Person of the Year,’ which is awarded by the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce.
“I kind of paused a minute, and she said, ‘We have the information on you, but let me know if you have something else you want to add.’ That was a surprise, the bank calling me to be their candidate. I said yes, and they put my resume together, sent me a copy of it, and my son and I read over it. He said, ‘Daddy, you might not make it, but this sure introduces you to the Chamber.’ As a result, in 1998, I was the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce Small Business Person of the Year.
“I also received the Omega Psi Phi Outstanding Businessman Award. I didn’t know all these things were going to happen. All those things I got was because so many others were a part of what happened to me. My wife wanted me to put the awards on my wall, so I have them hanging in my office. Thank God, it didn’t make me any different. I am still just myself. I look from a man’s point of view about what an entrepreneur can do if he tries. Sometimes you don’t know what is going to happen, and that’s the reason why, upon receiving the plaque from the Chamber and my blessings of being their recipient, I just did my thing, and the last thing I said, was ‘Well, I’ve found on my journey there are no barriers to perseverance.’”
Gary: “There are no barriers to perseverance.”
“That’s right. Nobody can stop you from persevering. You can’t say, well, the system won’t let me do this and all that stuff. Well, what are you doing? Are you complaining and not trying? Are you sitting on the porch and someone has to part the grass to get to you? Are you saying, ‘They won’t let me do this?’ You have to make something happen.”
Gary: “When you started trying to go into business, there was legalized segregation in the South. There were all kinds of barriers. You were not supposed to be in business.”
“And not only that, maybe when I even ran for office, on the Police Jury, I don’t know and I am not boasting, but it was 80% Caucasians. It’s not where you came from, it’s where you are going, and I believe in that whole-heartedly. And, anybody can do it! There are a lot of individuals out there, who, with the right attitude, can go as high as they want to.
“You also have to talk to God a little bit, too. One of the things I’m pleased about is that I’ve been able to help others by being where I am, whether it’s financing, some other kind of courtesy, or by making recommendations. I am glad that I’ve been able to do that.
“I can recall some of the church members came to me and asked if I’d I help a parolee. I did help him, and let me show you how things work. I really didn’t have a place for him, but I put him on. In about 30 days, Mr. Doyle, Principal of Bolton High School called and said he needed somebody to work.
“I told him I believed I had someone. He hired that young man, and that man worked there until he went in business for himself. How do you answer to those things? I didn’t have a place, but we were going to try to do what we could to help, and then I got that call.”
Gary: “It makes you feel good to help people. You get so much more benefit from that.”
“And I do it because I have really been helped so much, and I will never forget that.”
Gary: “We all have, Mr. Perry, but some people don’t admit they have been helped. I have been.”
“I have and if I can help someone else, or if I can help that person that helped me, I will be glad to do it. Actually, that’s what it’s all about. You know that’s my thing. I worked up from one employee and one pickup truck to five compactors at the point when I sold my business.”
Gary: “Let me ask you before you go to that, who were you banking with when you started buying your compactors?”
“I did some business with Guaranty and some with Rapides Bank. That’s how I met Mr. Bolton. Mr. Bolton was President of Rapides and I went in there one day when I was running for office, and he took me around to every one of his department heads, and told them who I was, and asked them to support me. I never will forget that.
“One of the high points in my life was when I rode down all the main streets in the residential areas in a horse and carriage. We used a big Belgian horse and a beautiful carriage, and that helped me win the election. The horse and carriage, that was an amazing thing. Nobody else has pulled that off yet.”
Gary: “That’s a great story. Tell me about some of the challenges you faced.”
“There came a situation whereby my kids were going to C. E. Robinson, an elementary school on Bayou Rapides Road. Then they zoned your kids to certain schools. I had two that were able to go to North Bayou Rapides School, which was only about five blocks away. I talked to my wife and my daughter at that time, and they said they’d go to North Bayou Rapides.”
Gary: “That was when they first integrated the schools in Rapides Parish.”
“Yes. During that challenging time, I gained more business than I lost. We kept our customers. There were those who built new houses, and if somebody built one next to someone that was our customer, they would say well, ‘There are others, but Scott Perry takes care of us, and he gives us good service.’ That’s the thing that kept us in business.”
Felix: “I was wondering if you could tell us other major challenges that stand out? If you had a failure, how did you adjust to that, what did you learn from it? A lot of our entrepreneurs think they are the only ones going through this process. As Gary said earlier, you had your challenges. Everything didn’t ‘come up roses.’”
“I did have challenges. There were times when I felt the liabilities were going to be greater than my revenues, but we worked through that. If you were a person whose credit background was good, the banks would always help you out. They came to my rescue in a lot of situations. There were also challenges about whether we were going to have a place to dispose our trash.”
Felix: “Did you have anyone you could seek advice from? Did you have a mentor back then?”
“I knew so many people, and they just weren’t in one place. When I was chosen Small Business Person of the Year, there was a Mr. Bordelon. We met several years before, and after our conversations, he said he knew that I was going to be successful. I made sure I kept that trust.
“But the most important thing is, you don’t ever give up. You have challenges, but you just don’t give up. You pray about situations, and sometimes you have to burn the midnight oil to make things happen, but people play a major role.
“People I knew gave me encouragement, and when things looked like they were going to be a mountain I wasn’t going to be able to climb, there were those individuals who came forward and helped me over them. You do get over those mountains, and sometimes you don’t know the exact time you get over the top, but suddenly they are behind you. I guess that’s one of the best things that I can tell you. It’s a people thing. I’m an entrepreneur, but with the people giving me the support they did, I had to be a person, someone they had confidence in. To make anything happen, you have to do the best that you can. It doesn’t matter whether you are collecting trash or burying somebody; you still have to be the best you can be. I guarantee you, that if you put those things together, you won’t be a failure.
“Currently, I sell pre-need vaults. Mr. Ben Johnson, of Winnfield Funeral Home, had several funeral homes. He let me bring a vault and put on his lot, near his cemetery in Natchitoches. Folks would come in wanting to buy a vault and he would show them ours.”
Gary: “Tell me a little bit about him helping you.”
“He found out I was a Master Mason, and was building concrete burial vaults. He was the Director of the Youth Challenge Kids. I got to know him through that, and when I talked to him, he would say all the time, ‘I’ll help you. You can bring a vault and stick it on my property up here so that when I have customers that want a vault, they can come out and look at yours.’ That’s what happened.
“I don’t know what else I can add to what I’ve told you, other than that I believe in God. I am sure that he’s showing me some of this. Being a son of a sharecropper, I wanted to do something. I believe, that, if you want to achieve something, you can, but don’t wait for somebody else to do it for you. That’s been my theory for my kids, grandkids, and everybody else I know.”
Felix: “This is advice you’d give an entrepreneur today, right?”
“I would give that advice and I would also let them know if they are thinking that the system, and when I say system, I’m thinking about people won’t let you do this or that, and if you don’t persevere, you aren’t going to do anything.”
Gary: “How hard was it in the sixties, when there was so much racial strife in America, and you were collecting trash in the white areas outside of town?”
“And running for a district that was 80% white. A lot of folks, if you don’t get to know them, then you don’t know them. Maybe there are some making noises about the racial situation, but there are other folks who, deep in their heart, do what they think is right. That’s the reason I want to tell my story for Central Louisiana. We have wonderful people here. Other times, when I ran for office, some folks would say, ‘Perry, you don’t have to worry, you are in the runoff, and you’re going to get it.’
“I don’t know what else I can add to what I’ve told you, other than that I believe in God. I am sure that he’s showing me some of this. Being a son of a sharecropper, I wanted to do something. I believe, that, if you want to achieve something, you can, but don’t wait for somebody else to do it for you. That’s been my theory for my kids, grandkids, and everybody else I know.”
Gary: “What year did your father pass away?”
“He passed away in 1984.”
Gary: “So he got to see your success.”
“Right!”
Gary: “He must have been very proud of you.”
“Oh, yes he was. He was a hard worker too, and was a sharecropper in the Latanier community. After the crops were harvested, he also worked as a lumber stacker for Foote Lumber Company. That’s the reason why I know the Foote’s so well; most of them live in the district that I represent. That carried over from when I was a little boy, going to see my father at the Foote Lumber Company.
“I’m a member of Newman United Methodist Church, and I’ve met a lot of folks there and at other churches. Many were an inspiration.”
Felix: “Scott, you have over 64 years of self-employment experience, in both companies. If you had the opportunity to go back in your business, and maybe your personal life, what would you change or do differently?”
“In doing what I was doing, I was giving service twice a week for a person in a subdivision, and once a week for rural areas. But I would try to do some of the same things I did before. If something is successful, maybe there might be a few things that you could change, but if it is successful, why change it? I not only built a business, I built myself. I wasn’t thinking I was building myself, but people gave me the impression that that’s what I was doing. I would say to anybody, whether they are an entrepreneur or whatever, you have to be truthful. Whatever you are involved in, try to do a good job, be faithful at what you try to do, and I think that will take you anywhere. I don’t care what color you are.”
Felix: “Do you have any other comments that you would like to share?”
“Well, I first give honor to the Good Lord. If you work hard, are faithful and tell the truth, and do incredible work, you can be a success. I guess you would say I’m an entrepreneur, because I didn’t go to school to be a sanitation collector. It was just something that I recognized as a need, knew I could do it, and here I am today.”
Gary: “So at that time were you working all day, picking up trash, and then most of the night, making sure your janitorial crew was working?”
“Right! Well, I made sure the kids had something to do. I let them know you have to work for a living.”
Gary: “How many kids did you have?”
“Five: four boys and one girl. They all know something about janitorial, even though they have pretty good jobs now. We felt that part of their curriculum from home was doing a little work.
“My oldest son, Ronald, has been with Exxon for twenty-nine years. He’s also a musician for a church and teaches about twenty students voice, organ and piano.
“Scott bought the grave service thing and is currently employed with the Youth Challenge Program.
“Michael, my third son, has an insurance agency, Allstate, in Houston. He’s married, his wife has a Ph.D., and is a sales person for a pharmaceutical company. But they have two kids, so she stopped being a pharmaceutical sales person, to fill prescriptions at Walgreens.
“My daughter, Sharon, was working for Affiliated Foods in Jacksonville, Arkansas, but the company recently closed.
“My baby boy, Kenneth, is the one that played a major role in sanitation. He would get there early in the morning, and he wouldn’t just check the truck out that he drives, he’d check out all the rest of them with the guy that I was telling you about, the one that has been with me for forty-five years.”
Gary: “That’s a long-term employee.”
“We treated him right. Then again, you might have ten or twelve or fourteen or fifteen employees, but the personality of those guys might be completely different. You have to adapt to what needs to be done so they will give you their best.”
Gary: “Right! That’s very important.”
“It’s very important, and I have had some that you couldn’t get to. They were there just to do what they could to get a check. They would half-do the work, and dump a trashcan and then throw it back, instead of sitting it back. Things like that. You run across them, but I didn’t get that many.
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity. I am not sad about anything that I’ve done so far as being a janitorial person, being a sanitation engineer, and I have no regrets. That brought me in contact with all those folks, so I could know something about them, and then get into public life from a political point of view. So many of those folks come to your rescue to make it happen, so how can you thank those folks?
“They didn’t have to do it, and that was a big hill to climb. When I threw my hat in the political ring, I called about ten people, and they all said yes. The only time I had a fundraiser was this last time, and I didn’t want that, but a bunch of fellows responded. So it’s been a great, great journey.”
Gary: “But I like your equation for success: hard work, honesty and be the best at what you do. It seems like the more entrepreneurs I talk to, no matter what they say, those things always come up. You have to be the best at what you do, be honest no matter how painful it is, and you have to work long hard hours.”
“I wanted to be the one that made it happen, an entrepreneur. I didn’t have a title other than being an entrepreneur, and believe me, it took a lot of work, but you have individuals who witness what you are trying to do, and they try to help push you on.”
Felix: “We may call on you to meet with some of our young entrepreneurs one-on-one later on.”
“My thing is to try to help. Youngsters need to know that you don’t half do things. If it takes all day to do it right, do it right. I hope you all do well with this program, and if I can be of any help other than what I have said, let me know.”