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SusanofO -> RE: "Ford CEO Mulally got $28 million for four months work" (4/5/2007 10:50:19 PM)
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I grew up living across the street from him. He lives in a part of town called "Dundee" - it's a nice part of town, however, there are parts of town that are definitely more expensive to live in. Dundee is an older neighborhood, and the houses are mostly two-story brick, and in it there are lots of trees.
Warren Buffett is just a regular guy, and he actually doesn't seem to be particularly materialistic, IMO. When I used to see him, he tended to wear the same clothes all the time (like the same sweater over and over.) He doesn't belong to any country clubs, or care about owning 10 houses, or much of that kind of stuff.
He did buy his favorite steakhouse in town, though. Because he wants to eat lunch there almost every day, and it is such an old business, that he thought it might just completely go out of business, so he just bought it. It is called Gorats (pronounced Go- raahts). He doesn't seem to walk around the neighborhood like he used to do, say, 30 years ago, but he is older now, and I think he is out of town a lot, too. But sometimes, you can see him eating at Gorats.
He is friendly, and when I was in junior high and high school, he used to go for walks in the neighborhood. I think if he had been born later, he's what I'd classify as a "computer nerd" type (and I mean that in a nice way). He is pretty "heady" - very smart, but he usually appears to have his mind elsewhere. But I always thought he was a very nice man.
I used to date his younger son, Peter, in high school (for a few months). Peter is a musical prodigy - plus, I thought he was a real fox: Dark brown hair, and really dark brown eyes, and very intense-looking. He was musically amazing. He could just listen to a song once on the radio, and, no matter how complicated it was, he could then sit down at the piano - and just play it. After hearing it just one time.
My mother was a music and piano teacher, and she just loved Peter. I think she wanted to adopt him. She was always asking him to play the piano for her. I quit taking piano lessons about 2 years after I started, which always seemed to disappoint my mother.
Peter was a really nice, down-to-earth guy. He was mostly obsessed with music, and playing the piano. His dad turned part of their basement into a make-shift music studio for him, when I knew him. He and his high school buddy, named Lars Erickson, were a musical "team", kind of like Simon and Garfunkel, only of course much less famous. They were seemingly inseperable throughout most of high school, and Lars wrote great music. Then Peter played it (although Peter could write music too, and they did play music together, as well.) Actually, Peter didn't learn to read music until he was in high school. Which is why it amazed my mother so much, that he was as musically talented as he was. It was completely natural talent.
Today, Peter is a professional musician, and has his own band, and he's made several records. It's not rock music though, it is some blend of Indian and Eastern spiritual type of music. He is genuinely very musically talented. I think he wrote part of the score to that Kevin Costner movie "Dances With Wolves."
After he left for college, I never saw him anymore, really, although I did talk to him once about five years ago, in the yard of his dad's house. By the time he left for college, I had already moved out of the neighborhood and was living elsewhere in my own apartment. I know he got married, but I can't remember who she is, or if they have kids, or are still married.
- Susan
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