The Greatest Story
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The Greatest Story
#8 – Bill Radakovitz – A Man of Great Character and Contribution to the Auburn, CA Community
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In this episode, Bill Radakovitz of Auburn, California, shares his remarkable journey from serving in the US Air Force to becoming a noted entrepreneur and community leader. Celebrating over six decades of marriage, Bill discusses his ventures in real estate, his pivotal role in local government, and his deep involvement with the Auburn Rotary Club. Uncover the wisdom he's gained from a life of diverse experiences and his commitment to giving back to the community.
Life and Business of Bill Radakovitz
Speaker 1Today we have a very special guest, bill Radakovitz of Auburn, california. He is an entrepreneur, a fellow Rotarian served in the US Air Force. He's also a pilot, real estate investor and this year you and Nancy are going to celebrate 62 year 62 years 62 year anniversary. Yeah, you have two sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, still very active, busy man. You've done your research Well in the last two years. I got to know you a little and I feel honored to know you, and I feel honored to do this today to know you and I feel honored to do this today.
Speaker 1But for those who don't know you, if you could please give them a little bit of your background. Who's Bill Radakovitz?
Speaker 2Well, let's see. I was actually born in Portland, oregon. I've got a brother and two sisters. We moved down to LA Granada Hills in the valley for my dad's work and went to high school there, first in Glendale and then over in Granada Hills. And not long after I graduated from high school I didn't want to go right back into school, so I went in the Air Force and I became over a period of time in Texas.
Speaker 2I was transferred from one school to the next and I became what they call an aeromedical specialist. I did all the physical exams on the pilots and navigators out at Mather Air Force Base EKGs, drew their blood in the morning, did EKGs, x-rays, eye exams, hearing tests the whole works for four years there and then when I got out I looked for work. I looked for work, had a. Our first son was born in 62, and I got out of the Air Force in 65, and we managed an apartment complex and found out my wife was pregnant with her second son. I'm thinking this is overwhelming. I'm still a pretty young guy and she's a young mom. She was 15 when we got married, so it doesn't get much younger than that.
Speaker 1You can't do that these days.
Speaker 2We had forged her birth certificate so that we could get married in a little town called Stevenson Washington. And this interesting point I didn't realize until just recently that my mother, uh, got married when she turned 17, also in Stevenson Washington and it runs in the family. Yeah because you only had and I didn't know that all these years. I mean, my mom has since died and I didn't know that that's where she got married as well was that kind of typical back then? I guess more so than now, sure.
Speaker 1There weren't a lot of options for people back then.
Speaker 2You know, you got married, you got a job, you got married, you raised a family and that's it. And now there's so many more opportunities for people it's different. So, in any event, I ended up getting a job. I worked at hospitals for a while and then I ended up getting a job handling injury claims for AAA insurance and they sent me to Auburn. That's how I ended up in Auburn and I had Auburn, grass Valley and Placerville all three locations and investigated injury accidents and handled injury claims, prepared files for litigation and that sort of thing. So that's what I did for 12 years. And they transferred me up to Auburn and we bought our first house in Rockland. Auburn was actually a lot more expensive back then than the same house in Rockland and so we found a house in Rockland. It was a fairly new home and a new development down there and $19,000. Three bedroom, two bath, had a pool put in and back and got involved in the community and before I knew it I was on the city council down there.
Speaker 1So back then, like when you were buying a house for $19,000, was that considered pretty affordable or was it still considered pretty expensive based on those?
Speaker 2salaries.
Speaker 1No, it was affordable. I think you know I mean. What was the average annual salary back then?
Speaker 2Probably around $15,000 a year, $15,000 to $20,000 a year.
Speaker 1Wow. So you look at a new house for $19,000 and an average salary $15,000. That's not a lot of spread between, but right now, no, that's true. Right now it's like the cost of housing is way up here.
Speaker 2Way more than yeah. Yeah, you made about the same amount of money in a year that the house would cost you yeah yeah, wow, try doing that now oh boy.
Speaker 1Yeah, you have to be like a doctor or engineer to make that kind of income? Yeah, because even right now, a starter home right now is around $500,000. Anything less is like it's not a nice location.
Speaker 2There are still homes out there under $400,000, but they're usually gobbled up pretty soon if they're in good, in pretty good shape. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, but in Auburn like there's really nothing on that price.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1So, but you said you went to air force. Was that your decision? Is it like why? Why did you choose air force and why did you choose to go into military?
Speaker 2Well, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. I didn't really want to go right back into school, like I said. So I did a little research and it looked like they offered me an opportunity to get some experience, some life experience, and move forward. And I went to school a night school while I was in the Air Force, took several classes, and after I got out I finished up my bachelor's degree at Sac State and then moved into the master's program as well. And while I was doing that I was also on the city council in Rockland.
Speaker 2We were raising two boys, and then we opened up a record store in 1972. And that was a whole different ballgame then. So I had all these balls, I was juggling and the boys were in Little League, and thank goodness I have a great wife who was very supportive and she took that on. She didn't really want to do that. She had other plans for herself. She wanted to teach at a junior college level or something, and she was taking classes at Sierra College and she was willing to set all that aside and run the record store.
Speaker 2And so I thought well, what name should we call the record store? Well, obviously it ended up being Nancy's Record Store and we grew from a small store in the Livingston building in 1972. And we went from there to Placerville and opened a store there and then we opened up a third store over in what was called the Bel Air Center there on 49. So we had three stores and I was again still working for AAA investigating accidents and working on my degree, my master's degree. It's just exhausting when I think about it now I mean I don't know how I did all that, I don't know how my wife did it all, and you were in your 30s.
Speaker 1We were young. Was this in your 20s or already 30s?
Speaker 2Well, let's see, I was born in 42, so I was 30 years old.
Speaker 1How did you come across opening a record store?
Speaker 2My brother. He and his wife owned Dimple Records in Sacramento area and his wife owned Dimple Records in Sacramento area and he was at that time distributing for a company called Picatoon, a division of Transamerica. And he said how would you like to open up a record store?
Life in Auburn
Speaker 2I can get you all this music, these records and of course, back then it was eight-track tapes, if you remember and vinyl, and it was not long after Woodstock, and I was kind of caught up in that whole thing, and so was he. I mean, a lot of people were. The music was great, wonderful time to be in that industry, and so we did that for a couple years. And so we did that for a couple years and I started seeing the change take place when they moved from 8-tracks to cassettes, then from cassettes to CDs, then from CDs to DVDs and then to online product. I was tired of having to completely redo my entire inventory with a different technology each time. But we really enjoyed the experience. We made a lot of friends locally.
Speaker 2We were a bass ticket outlet, so we were selling tickets for all the concerts that came to what was then the Arco Arena down in Sacramento and we would for special acts like Neil Diamond or Elton John. We would charter a bus and we would stock the bus with drinks, have a bar in there and we would have videos playing and we would take people down to the Arco Arena and drop them off at the front step and then pick them up. And the thing that really worked well for us is we were notified as soon as tickets went on sale and we would just start punching out tickets. We weren't waiting for people to come up to the counter and tell us what they wanted, we just started punching out because the tickets go from front center out and they fan out. So we were able to get really good seats for people right front center and out.
Speaker 2And actually I got a call from Bass out of San Francisco saying you guys are our leading ticket seller at this point. What's going on up there? And I said I don't know, we're just busy. We've got lots of people here and people would camp out overnight around the block. At that point we had moved into what was then a Sprouse Reeds variety store and we redid it all.
Speaker 2And we had a lot of room and I wasn't sure how we were going to fill it with product. But it didn't take long and we did. We had a lot of stuff. We had an arcade back there in the back, we had a recording studio in the back. Oh wow, lots of posters, lots of T-shirts, clothing, I mean everything, and it was a fun time for us. We were busy but it was fun. So anyway, like I said, I ended up on the city council and then I ended up joining Rotary, joined the chamber first in 1972. Auburn Chamber, auburn Chamber, when we opened our record store. And then I decided to do more with the community at large. They had paid me. It was payback time.
Speaker 2Basically, I wanted to contribute back to a community that had supported us, and so I did that as best I could. I got on the hospital board and the SPCA board and we just kept forging ahead and kept things under control and made a good life for ourselves and our sons.
Speaker 1So what year was it that you actually moved to Auburn?
Speaker 2We moved to Auburn in 2002. And about that same time my parents had just passed and we bought a home over in Deer Ridge, north Auburn, and I had property next to DeWitt, the county center, and I ended up getting 38 lots there paper lots and we sold those and bought rentals down in Sun City and Whitney Oaks and moved to Auburn and remained involved with the chamber and the people here just have never considered leaving the area because we just fell in love with Auburn and had all of our friends and raised our family in this area and it's been good to us.
Speaker 1Let's talk a little bit about this community, because that was a similar experience for us. When we first discovered Auburn, it was 2008. My wife Tatiana and I, we got married and we lived on this beautiful piece of property right by the Lake of the Pines, but on the other side of 49. There was a property that one of our relatives purchased, but he didn't buy it at the right time and they were going through a short sale slash foreclosure process and the house it was a brand new house. It was sitting there, nobody lived in it, the builder just finished building the house and that was when that was in 2008 oh okay.
Speaker 1And so when we heard about it, the guy, he told us he's like hey, if you guys want, you guys can maybe live there for a month or two while we're in the process, because we don't want any squatters to come in there, you know. And so we said, sure, we got married, we moved in there and we were hoping to live there for a couple months until we find rent somewhere. We ended up living there for one year. That's how long back then. That's how long the process took, whether it was a short sale or a foreclosure, there were so many properties that were being foreclosed on that.
Speaker 2They were just dragging it on.
Life in Auburn and Ukraine
Speaker 1So but when we lived there that's you know, I was still in college I went to Sierra College. That's how we met Bob Litchfield. He was teaching business law at Sierra and he kind of introduced us to Don Whitaker and other people of Auburn. And as we're living in Auburn, we're like you know what? This is such a cool place. Maybe one day we're going to find something here to buy and move in here. Well, in 2017, we found the lot where we live right now. We built a house. 2017, we found the lot where we live right now. We built a house. And when we moved in in 2020, I mean it's just this place has been amazing. The people, the community, local businesses, you know, I mean just everyone is so inviting, so generous, so connected. So how is Auburn to you Like? What about Auburn that you like a lot?
Speaker 2Besides of course, the beautiful landscape, the hiking trails and all that, the hills. It's a healthy community. People are really into health here.
Speaker 2They're into exercise and eating right, and I'm not quite so fascinated with either one of those things. Enough so that I'm going to change my lifestyle, but, uh, I, I work at it a little bit, you know. And enough so that I'm still pretty healthy and I'll be 82 in November. But um, we, we just um, like the attitude that people have, the healthy attitude they have about life here. And I'm not a city boy, I never have been. I couldn't stand living in the city, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2And I don't like a lot of traffic, you know. So I need a little bit of elbow room. Yeah, to Rockland back in 1968 and bought our first house, as I said, down there. The population was only 2,500 people In Rockland, yeah, and we had pastures around where our development was, where people were raising cows, cattle, you know, and it was a different world. Now it's 80,000. So my son lives down there and my other son lives in Folsom, but it's just changed so much and I wouldn't want to live back down there now with all the traffic and all the development and everything.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2We like where we are, yeah.
Speaker 1Is there anything about Auburn that maybe you can share, maybe something that a lot of people don't know?
Speaker 2if something either happened or you discovered, oh well yeah, you know, we used to have the black and white ball, the chamber put on. We would shut down the streets in downtown Auburn and it would go on all night long and we would invite pretty famous rock bands, people that would come in from Reno performing in Reno. One instance we went up to get them from Reno to bring them down to Auburn and they had made all these demands on us for food and drinks and all this we had to set up a special bar and the ladies went up to get them in a van and bring them down to Auburn and they weren't real happy about that.
Speaker 2They didn't want anybody from Auburn to be there, especially the women, and told the women just to keep their mouths shut and not say or do anything, you know. And the ladies were really embarrassed and not happy about the attitude that these artists had. If I could remember the name of the group, oh, blood, sweat and Tears. Remember.
Speaker 2Blood Sweat and Tears. I don't know, okay, well, could remember the name of the group. Oh, blood Sweat and Tears. Remember Blood Sweat and Tears? I don't know, okay, well, anyway, they were the group. And these parties would go on till all hours of the night and my wife and I decided on one occasion we would stay overnight upstairs at our building that we had, where we had our record store stay overnight upstairs at our building that we had where we had our record store.
Speaker 2We had a sofa up there that came out into a bed and we were asleep. About 2 o'clock in the morning they decided to take the tents down or the stages down outside our building, so all these metal poles were clank, clank, clank. Anyway, we didn't get much sleep that night.
Speaker 1Well, bill, it sounds like you have done a lot. You're pretty successful. Can you share something that guided you to being where you are? Did you have any mentors in your life, maybe someone who you looked up to?
Speaker 2I think in my Rotary Club. Bob Litchfield is a man I highly respect. We've gone camping together. He took his motor home, we took our trailer and I think there were some people long ago I can't even remember their names now, but in Rockland when I was on the city council that worked with me and Roy Rukla, who was born and raised in the Rockland area and he had a lot of pastures and cows and he was a terrific guy. Speaking of cows, we had a little bit of a problem where we lived because we had the pastures next to our house we had a little bit of a problem where we lived, because we had the pastures next to our house and the cows would come out.
Speaker 2They'd make it through the fence sometimes and they'd get into our neighborhood and they'd wander around and they'd thrash up against the landscape and everything and tear up the yards. So we called the police and they sent an officer out. I was on the city council at that point. He came rushing out. What's the problem? Well, he had a little bit of a speech impediment.
Speaker 2He stuttered and he said Bill, what's going on? We said, well, these cows are out here, they're tearing things up. And he said, well, what do you want me to do about it? And we said, well, could you get? Them back inside the pasture. So he got on the bullhorn and he goes moo Moo. Of course that didn't help much.
Speaker 1They didn't follow him. The cows did not follow him. No, no.
Speaker 2It took all of us. We had to all go out. All the neighbors pushed the cows back in and got them back inside the pasture and tried to fix it year and tried to fix it.
Speaker 1But speaking of cows, it reminds me when I was in ukraine I helped my grandpa watch over a herd of cows and most of them were, uh, you know, people in our village each own at least one cow, two cows, and they would. He would uh gather all of them into the fields and just kind of watch over them as they grazed. And I remember I think I was like seven years old and my grandpa used to like take naps in the middle of the day. I was like religiously took naps, at least for like 10, 15 minutes, and he tried to make me, but at seven years old you can't make me Too much energy yeah tried to make me, but at seven years old, you know you can't make too much energy.
Speaker 1Yeah, so he took a nap under this tree and I'm sitting there and just observing the cows and then I'm watching how like three or four cows from a different herd came running to our herd and I'm not understanding what the heck is going on. And I'm watching and all of a sudden a group of cows from our herd started chasing them and just took off. When I saw what was happening, I started yelling, screaming, waking grandpa up, you know. And uh, and he got up. He's looking, he's like, oh, you know, he's like he got mad, you know. But then he's like he calmed me down because I thought, you know, I was responsible, I should have, you know, stopped this from happening. And I just remember that moment because during that day, when the evening came, we started gathering all the cows and they all went back home and some of the people started coming over to my grandpa's house and say, hey, where's my cow? My cow didn't come home.
Speaker 2How long did you live in Ukraine?
Speaker 1I was eight when we moved here. So, eight years. I finished first grade, but I remember stuff like this. You remember, you don't forget. And back then, when you were seven, eight, you had a lot of responsibilities. Now I think kids, teenagers, they probably don't have it. Of course, ukraine is going through a lot of hard times right now too. It's a different world.
Speaker 2It is, yeah, not just in Ukraine, but all over. It seems like there's conflict.
Speaker 1You're right, it's not just in Ukraine. Anywhere you look, it's… I don't know what's happening, but it's sure pretty frightening.
Speaker 2You wonder if it'll ever end up coming to this country.
Speaker 1Well, even our country. I mean, look, how divided we got. I remember, when we came here in 1993, things were somewhat or maybe it kind of seemed that they were like that to us kind of peaceful People you know were. I did not really see this kind of division in the 90s.
Speaker 2Oh, no, it just seems like this is all pretty recent. Yeah, yeah, what's happening right now? I mean we had the Vietnam War way back when, but I don't think we ever feared for our country here with what was going on in Vietnam. We lost a lot of men and women in that fight. Men and women in that fight. You wonder sometimes if it was a legitimate cause for us to lose what we did over there. But not like now, and especially with the weapons that are available now and how easy it is to send weapons across oceans.
Speaker 1Pretty scary time for people and how easy it is to send weapons across oceans. Pretty scary time for people. America did leave a lot of weapons behind in Afghanistan. I heard I don't know exactly how much? But they said billions of dollars worth of weapons and I mean I'm sure that they're not uh going into, uh, you know, just regular people's hands who are just trying to defend themselves from their corrupt governments.
Speaker 2There, you know, they're probably, you know, end up being in the wrong hands and a lot of people that we said we we would support, we wouldn't let that happen to them and we deserted them. That was not a good situation.
Speaker 2Yeah yeah, this country, as divided as it is, is really a concern for everybody. All I can think of as a solution is for us to think about what's really important and move forward and support those aspects of our political system that we know are here to support us. You know that are here not to support themselves, but to support us.
Speaker 1To me, it seems like there are some things that are very, you know, common sense things, and it seems as if, though, somebody is trying to, you know, take away the common sense and put in certain things that doesn't really align with most of the people's values and principles in this country, and sometimes I ask, like is is there some kind of uh, I don't know, maybe some kind of a power or intention somewhere that is doing this to break this country apart, because I mean, no, wherever you go, even right now, with things being the way they are, you, you travel to another country, right, and you always want to come back home, if you're an American citizen, because you still realize that America is still the best country, the best place to live, the safest place, the one that has a lot of opportunity.
Speaker 1Like I, look at what this country has done for us. This country has embraced us. We came here with nothing at all, not knowing the language, and a lot of people, like hundreds of thousands of people that came from Ukraine, russia, belarus, you know all these European countries. They come here, and most of them are well off, learn the language really quickly, found a job, a career, build a business you know, and became successful, raised a family, but so I think it's still like that beacon of hope. This country is for the whole world, but it does to me right now. More often I look at it and it seems like there is some kind of a force that is trying to break it apart.
Speaker 2Yeah, you wonder about biblical prophecy. You know, with all the things that are going on in the world right now, I do know that a lot of opportunity is still here for people if you're willing to put out the effort that it takes you know, and in my case you know, I was fortunate because I had a wife that was there to work with me so we could move forward as a team. As a team and that's made a good life for us and made it a lot easier to be successful.
Speaker 2You know, when I was running for city council, she and the boys were right there with me going door to door, you know, asking for the vote, and we got a little carried away on occasion. We were actually voting outside. We were going to houses outside the city limits and I didn't realize it at the time, but she's always been there for me and it's been good.
Speaker 1Tatiana and I next month we're going to celebrate our 16-year anniversary your anniversary and when I look at people who were able to keep their marriage and be together for as long, especially as long as you and Nancy have, I respect that, I admire that. What is the secret of such a long, healthy relationship? Every time I see you guys together, I still see you guys are still in love. What is that? What's the secret?
Values, Community, and Life Inspiration
Speaker 2I don't know, I really haven't done my part, probably to the extent that I think I should have, but she's held up her end and you know you have disagreements along the way, of course, but she was raised in a home in a situation where she had no food Her father was on the road all the time, and a series of housekeepers and women that he'd bring in to take care of the kids and it was not a healthy situation at all and there were a lot of things going on in her house that were not good, and her dad was never home and my parents moved around a lot, always trying to outrun the bill collectors. So both of us knew what we didn't want and we were willing to do whatever it took to not end up living like our parents lived.
Speaker 1Do you think maybe that plays a role in life when you are actually exposed to something like that and you know that that's not what you want.
Speaker 2So you built your life in a different way. I think sometimes people succumb to that and take the attitude that's all there is and they aren't willing to do anything about it. Because they feel like that's all there is and they aren't willing to do anything about it, because they feel like that's their destiny or something. I guess I don't know. But there's so much like you you said before there's so much opportunity here to move forward and get an education and and get involved the community and, along the way, you know, make a living, and for some people who are willing to go the little extra mile, they can become very successful. I've got friends here that I've grown up with over the last several years that have done quite well for themselves and, um, now they're retired and living the good life and that's all you can ask for, you know bill.
Speaker 1What would you say some of the some of your values and principles that guided you in your life, maybe some things that were just non-negotiable, like something that, for you, like you, had to just stay loyal to certain values and principles.
Speaker 2I think the way you treat other people and just your attitude about life, I think it carries you forward and people react to that. It's almost like a magnet. If you have a good, healthy attitude about life, people come to you. Other people who have similar attitudes are attracted to you and you're attracted to them. Similar attitudes are attracted to you and you're attracted to them. And I don't have a set of principles, you know, etched in stone or anything. It's just trying to live a decent life and take a position of leadership on occasion when it's offered to you. I've been president of my Rotary Club. My wife has been president twice of her Rotary Club and Rotary has had a profound influence on our life. We've made a lot of great friends over the years in Rotary and we've done a lot of things in the community and elsewhere.
Speaker 1So, bill, for those people who do not know what Rotary is, since you have been a Rotarian for so long and your wife Nancy, can you briefly talk about what it means to you?
Speaker 2Well, rotary is an international organization. They work towards peace, towards health, towards clean water providing for people who can't possibly provide for themselves clean water providing for people who can't possibly provide for themselves. And we've been involved in projects in Mexico, working with an orphanage down there. I took down 30 computers that I'd gotten from a health club that was updating their computer system and had them transferred down to an orphanage near Ensenada. We had been going down there for a number of years working with Thousand Smiles Program, which is a dental and cleft palate surgery operation.
Speaker 2We were going down there working with the kids and helping the doctors and we were advised that there was an orphanage that was in need of computers and so on and so forth. Well, we took the computers down and within just a few months they were all gone. They just disappeared somehow and we decided maybe a security wall would help. So we took that on as a project and we built a cinder block wall around the outside of the orphanage and the locals there thought that was kind of pretty funny to see these people, you know, working doing what they normally had to do. And then we noticed that there was a, there was sludge in the playground for the kids. It was affluent from the septic system that had failed, so we decided we would take that on and we spent several years going down there and designed a system and built a system for the kids and it was built to California requirements, you know this updated, modern system and it worked pretty well for a while.
Speaker 2But now my understanding is that somebody donated a lot of money to put a soccer field in right over the top of the whole system. So I don't, I don't know how well it's doing now, but anyway, we we it it functioned for for for quite a while and, um, those are the kinds of things that rotary does throughout the world. Uh, you know, uh, the big project is, of course, uh, eliminating polio from the face of the earth and, uh know, we send people into sometimes pretty difficult situations politically to give people immunizations against polio. And we've lost people, lost their lives when we've gone into situations where the government that we went in, the government where we went, didn't want us interfering with their lifestyle, I guess, or something. I don't know what the issue was exactly, but we've lost people that were murdered by the military in some of those countries, like Rotarians.
Speaker 2Rotarians, yeah, wow. So that's the extent that Rotarians are willing to go to to help solve that particular issue and other issues worldwide. So I feel very honored to be a part of that and, like I said, I joined in 1984 and coming up on 40 years now and we've done a lot of things locally. We put in recreational equipment and for kids in the parks and we've painted houses. We've done a lot of local things that over the years as well. And, um, it doesn't stop it.
Speaker 1Just you know, we just keep moving forward and yeah, and there's like all these new things as we move through time, that kind of evolve and pile on, like right now. I think one of the big issues that I don't know if there's an answer to this is the mental issues, with so many, especially the his name, binus. Dr Binus, yes, in by From Beautiful Minds. Yes, he talked about this a little bit. You know, and like when I looked at the statistics I can't recall exactly the numbers, but the percentage of, like teenagers who are going through like severe depression, it's mind-boggling. And then suicide of course follows some of them. But just to get to a point where you have to just live your whole life on pills because you have….
Speaker 2And in some cases fentanyl, which is killing. So many young people yes yes, I mean drugs.
Speaker 2I'm not sure what the answer is, what you do about that situation. But all is not doom and gloom. I'm on the committee for scholarships for our club. We've got a lot of money set aside every year that we donate to kids that we feel are worthy and we've got several that we're going to be doing an oral interview now. We've reviewed their scholastic ability and all the other things and we've graded them and now we're doing the oral interview on the 4th of April and we'll give away over $20,000 to kids for their scholarship and it is like a breath of fresh air to see these kids what they've accomplished their grades in spite of many cases really adverse situations at home. There was one young man, he and his mother living in their car. They're homeless. Straight A's and A pluses. You know it just and you realize all is not lost. You know there's a lot of good kids out there. They're not all bad, oh yeah.
Speaker 1Oh for sure, Absolutely. You know, and that's why sometimes, when I think about it, you shared a story how you know you were growing up, nancy, you know, and all those things going on. You still grow up and you realize what you don't want and you make commitment in your life to move towards a healthy lifestyle and doing great things for yourself, your family. But sometimes people, they don't do that right. They actually look at that and say, well, I'm not the lucky one because I had all these issues growing up right and you find excuses.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that's like the story that they are telling themselves for why they can't go out and become successful or do something good. Right, and one of the thoughts behind the name the Greatest Story Podcast for this podcast was the fact that I think that stories have a lot to do with how we go about life. There are some stories that people believe and they go through life believing a story that they made up. Thinking about this is who they really are and it really affects them in a negative way. And then there are sometimes those stories that really make a pivot in life. People make that pivot in life and go forward in the positive trajectory. Can you share a story from your life, maybe something that you can remember, recall, something that had a profound impact in your life?
Reflections on Life in Auburn
Speaker 2Yeah, I had a teacher professor at Sac State when I was working on my master's degree in psychology. That had quite an influence on me and of course it was the middle of the Vietnam war and so that was an issue that we had. But he was a very, very intelligent person and very sincere and giving and we established a relationship with each other. We had him over at our house along with some other students. We'd have dinner for everybody, and that experience for me, I think, opened up my eyes to the possibility. I was on the city council, I think at the time Maybe not, no, I hadn't been on the city council I was approached by some neighbors to do that and that's how I ended up on the city council. You know what was over the thing, that's the craziest thing. They wanted me to get on the city council because a developer had come into our development, the Woodside subdivision down there, and was putting in asphalt shingles and up to that point we had wood shingles, wood shake, oh yeah.
Speaker 1Shake roofs.
Speaker 2So everybody got together and put together this money. I think my whole campaign fund was like $300 or something to get on the city council and we took on this developer and went after him, the city went after him and everything, and now you look back on it. That was silly, that was crazy. I mean, who wanted to shake shingles with the fire possibility and all that? Versus asphalt? Yeah, but that's the way things were back then. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2And I don't know. It's just been a great life. You know, we're really fortunate to come to this part of the world. My brother, when he got out of the Navy, came and lived with us for a while and then he got married and he and his wife bought a home. And then my parents came. We set them up in a duplex that I had purchased for a while and then they ended up in a mobile home park down there.
Speaker 2our whole family just kind of merged into this area and then our kids, of course, and, and their kids, and, and now we've got, I think, eight great grandkids. Wow, that's amazing. The Rudakovichs are expanding.
Speaker 1That's great. That's awesome. Bill, is there anything in your life that at this point, you can look back and say I wish I would have done this? Different. Yeah.
Speaker 2I think there have been times over 62 years of marriage where I thought across my mind that maybe I should have gone in a different direction. You have disagreements and it's not always perfect, but I realized along the way how fortunate I was to have the support that I had with my wife and she knew what she wanted and I didn't realize the influence that she had on me until I was long in the tooth, as they say. I had gone along. Until I was long in the tooth, as they say. I had gone along. Then I looked back on it and I realized, you know, she's the glue that kept everything together, including our kids and all the rest of it that is so important, and she's always been willing to put out the effort that it took to make things happen for us. And so here we are, got a great family and, you know, great community Can't ask for much more.
Speaker 1Do you think about things like legacy or how you want to be remembered?
Speaker 2No, I don't think about that. Hopefully, people will appreciate the relationship that I've had along the way with them. You know, once you're gone it's just a memory. You know, and hopefully it's a good memory. You don't. You haven't made too many enemies along the way. You know you've done your best to make friends and I think if you can maintain that over a period of years, things work out pretty well for you you know, but it's a lot of effort, Like, look at all that you and Katriana have done.
Speaker 2You know, Katriana, you know the work that you've gone to. It hasn't been easy for you either, but you've done remarkably well both of you.
Speaker 1Well, I don't see any other options. Yeah, is there anything that you would like to see changed in our town, auburn?
Speaker 2Yeah, there are things I think that need to be done. Auburn, unfortunately, for many, many years for a lot of people has just been a pit stop on their way to Tahoe. Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, and it's such a jewel for Placer County but all the development, all the growth, all the money and influence and the votes are coming from South Placer. Sometimes I feel like we're just kind of the stepchild out here. You know we get whatever's left over. You know we had an unfortunate situation recently with the theater. You know the ceiling caved in, did a lot of damage and it's going to take millions and millions of dollars to repair all that. So there was not what is the material? Asbestos, asbestos. There's a lot of asbestos in the ceiling and that all had to be cleared out. We went to the county and asked if they could help and the county contributed $1,500. And you know they've spent a lot of money on the county center out there, millions and millions of dollars, and it's kind of pitiful that all we were able to get to help with what we've got going on here, which is such an important part of downtown Auburn is $1,500.
Speaker 2But, be that as it may, we're moving forward and trying to find people who are willing to help out and make that happen again. I was on that board for a number of years and it was a great theater. At one time. It was two theaters. It was split down the middle with a wall, but one side was used just for storage and there was actually a balcony there at one time and that was torn out and offices are in there now where the balcony used to be, but they just showed movies on the one side.
Speaker 2Well, a group of us got together and we ended up buying the building and tore out the wall and redid the whole thing. Inside the theater, a non-profit organization was formed and they ended up reimbursing all of the investors several years later, like 10 years later or something. But we in the meantime were there in the pits down underneath clearing out all the rubble and it was down below getting rid of the rats and I mean the place was really in bad shape. But it turned out to be a beautiful, beautiful theater and now this happened. So I'd really like to see that get fixed up. Colleen sands has been. You couldn't ask for a better person yeah, go out there and try to get the community involved.
Speaker 2She's involved in so many other things.
Speaker 1She's awesome.
Speaker 2yeah, and I think Bob Richardson, when he was here as city manager, had a great deal to do with changes that took place downtown redoing the streets and that big center, town center where you have the logo in the center, you know he put all that together and the theater.
Speaker 2Len Gans came to town. He's from Canada and his dad had a toy company Len Gans Toy Company and he gave him a million dollars and said go to Auburn or go out into the world and make your way in the world. He ended up in Auburn and he bought what was then the Auburn Hotel and he converted it all over and fixed it up and put offices in and they had a restaurant in there, a restaurant and bar called Hummer's and the logo was a hummingbird and it was really nice and they had a great chef in there. We had wonderful dinners and a great place after work to go for a drink or two. And then his dad came and said that he was tired of dumping money into this place. I guess at that point they had put like $3 million into it.
Speaker 2And his dad came to see how it was going and saw that Doug and Tanya, who were friends of Lynn's from Canada, were running the restaurant and the bar and he said I don't want that restaurant and bar here anymore, get them out of here. And Lynn had to fire them Now she's a teacher and he's a painting contractor but they converted it all over into just offices and we really missed that restaurant and that bar. It was great. But there's more things in the wings. We'll see more. I mean, people are finding out about Auburn and money's coming here and there are going to be changes. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, for sure. I mean even us in the last couple years. You know, between me, tatiana, and our agents on the team, we get some phone calls and phone calls and people who are not from here and they're debating between moving to Folsom, which is in the Highway 50 corridor, or up here in Auburn, and a lot of them are they like Auburn better than Folsom and a lot of it is because of the kind of like a small town feel but at the same time all of the scenery, you know, the access to the river, hiking the trails, I mean it's just beautiful. Especially right now, as we get closer to April, like in the next two months, it's just going to be looking beautiful with clear skies.
Speaker 2You've got that courthouse too.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, months is just going to be looking beautiful with clear clear skies. You've got that courthouse too.
Speaker 2Yeah, you know, yeah, historic, yeah, not too many like that around it.
Speaker 1It's really a centerpiece for Auburn and like, even like, like you know, we we have two kids and the things that you know and the things that you know this city, this town, puts on during Christmas time and other events the Fourth of July. It's just, it's great, you know it's. We always, like my kids, always, look forward to that Old Town Christmas event that goes on in the Old Town.
Speaker 2It's just, it's awesome. And then, of course, you know, Nancy and I for the last 25 years have been working with others to put on the Festival of Lights Parade.
Speaker 2Yes, for years we did a lot of it ourselves, the lineup and everything. Now, you know, we've got a lot of help and we've actually brought in a couple that are going to kind of fill in for us. We're kind of backed off of that now, but it's, it's been a lot of fun. Um, we've had to, you know, battles, even snow. We had snow one time we were having the festival lights parade. The horses were slipping, were slipping around on the snow coming down the hill on Lincoln Way. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2But yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I mean, there's so many things that's the other thing about Auburn that I really like. There are so many opportunities for people to contribute and make friends and get involved and you know people are always looking for somebody to help out with some kind of a project. Yeah yeah, and just like Rotary, that's what we do, yeah yeah, bill.
Speaker 1Last question you know we're in 2024, and this happens to be an election year and we already mentioned sort of this division that's going on in this country. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of this country and do you believe that the better days are still ahead for America?
Hope for Future Leadership
Speaker 2That's a difficult question to answer. I think you know, when we're giving money to people that are here illegally and not providing for our veterans and people here that have contributed already their whole life, we've got a big homeless problem. I don't see much being done about that. It's being left up to the locals, Although now, with Proposition 1 going through, a lot of the money that the county had to solve that problem is being taken away by the state and I don't know what their plans are. But I'm sure we're going to end up on the losing end on that deal. Plans that we had and money that we had available to do that now are going to be pulled out from underneath us. If it's up to the people, we'll do well.
Speaker 1I think those are the key words if it's up to the people. Yeah.
Speaker 1And I agree with that. I have a feeling that the future is bright. I believe it, I'm hopeful. Of course, nobody knows what's going to happen, but even with all these terrible things that have happened in the last few years in this country like our withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Ukraine situation, the illegal mass migration here into this country I see that a lot of people are realizing that if this continues, it's going to be very, very bad, and I hope that more and more people open their eyes and see what happens and just come together as a nation and change the course.
Speaker 2We do need a stronger leadership than what we've had. We need Reagan back again, probably.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, but I think what you said there, if it's up to the people, and I think if it is up to the people, then I think hopefully the vote.
Speaker 2We'll see how it turns out. I think people are there's an awful lot of unhappy people right now.
Speaker 1Oh yes.
Speaker 2Oh yes, and if it's up to them, I think it'll be okay, yeah Well, bill, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, Paul, for inviting me. It was an honor.
Speaker 1Say hello to Nancy. I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity. Thank you.
