JUNE 22, 2026 #021 M.SIMPSON/S.WRIGHT (WHAT'S STEVE BEEN UP TO?)

REPLY/COMMENT 

In this episode of Talkin’ Grit, M.Simpson and J.Waldrop catch up with Steve and answer the question many have been asking: “What’s Steve been up to?” As he settles into semi-retirement, Steve shares what life has looked like since stepping back from the day-to-day, the projects and passions keeping him busy, and reflections from his years with Wright Brothers. From staying connected to the company to embracing a new pace of life, this conversation offers a personal look at Steve’s next chapter and the legacy he continues to leave behind. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From the job site to the office, from lessons learned to stories worth telling, this is Talking Grit, brought to you by Wright Brothers. Here's your host, Jared Walger.

SPEAKER_04 0:13

Hey everyone, welcome back. And uh we got a great conversation for you this episode. We got Steve Wright here on the podcast. And uh Mitchell, we've been waiting for this one. It's gonna be a great one. We're gonna jump into this and and just talk about history and stories and just the the journey, the amazing journey, and looking forward to hearing Steve from you and everything. So, Mitchell, let's let's go ahead and set this up and get this conversation rolling. It's already been rolling. We've been sitting here talking and figured, well, let's go ahead and press record.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, we need to go ahead and hit record. So so Steve, glad you're here. Glad I could finally drag you on to the podcast. I've been harassing you about this for a few months now.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Yeah, like email number seven or something.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, email number seven or something. And testering you. Yeah, I mean, we got Penny on the podcast before you. Penny was the first member of the Wright family on the podcast. So he was excited about that. Go Penny. I'm proud of her. Yeah, I bet you are. So, hey, you know, you allowed me to step into the president CEO role nine, ten months ago. And one of the questions that I've been getting over the past several months, as you know, to your credit, you've really allowed me to do it. I give you that.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

I mean, it's like you Well, you were already doing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, well, you you walked out the door and you kind of threw the keys and you disappeared for a while, right? You disappeared for a while, and people have been like, hey, where's Steve? What's he doing? Gonna do it. Where is Steve? You're gonna do it some more? Yeah, okay. So what's what what has Steve been doing? It's kind of like where's Waldo, right? That's been the question everybody's asking. Where is Steve? What's Steve been doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Well, Steve's been answering the question, what are you doing? A whole lot. And I, well, how's retirement? Well, they're still paying me.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

You know, hey, so you retired if you get paid? Hey, I you got a certificate yesterday from Ian for how many years of service? Forty-five years. Forty-five years of service. Wow. And they missed the first two years of work. You didn't get paid the first two years.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

No, it wasn't that. You know, everybody get you get that social security uh thing. There's two years that somehow my earnings are just dismissing out of her.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Well, you're conscripted into this from the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Well, I I've slave labor for a long time, yes. So what have you been doing? What have I been doing since September when you took over your dollar? Do it, you and your team are doing a great job. Y'all are professionalizing the organization and finishing the things that I was holding back because I hate things like reviews and a lot of different structure. You know, my life had always been if you uh if you don't have too many rules, you can do whatever you want to.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

It's a pretty good lesson there.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

There's there's there is some advantage to that, yes. But since then, you know, we've spent a couple years trying to the the truth the stuff, I guess the backstory if you'd like me to tell it is that I sat down with my sisters to what, two or three years ago now, probably when we started this, you know, I turned 65, I'm 67 now, and or I knew I was fixing to turn 65, and I said, I've got to figure out what we're gonna do. Uh, you know, do we wanna put uh lipstick on this pig and try to sell it, or do we want to try to to uh to m move it into the next generations? And there's so many, so many great people and families that work here, and you you know, the used to be, it's not now, but the first two or three picnics we had were hard, hard for me emotionally. I don't get too emotional that much, but you well, you look around and you go, and and I'll bet you Mitchell feels this when he he that you know you're responsible for all of that.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

Oh yeah, the weight of it.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

You you carry that weight, yeah. And that's that's tough. And so, and you know all these people, you've you've watched, you know, three generations of of the same family work here during your career, and you've you feel like you need to do the right thing. Right. And you know, I've been very blessed. We don't need to, you know, I'm blessed financially. I can retire if I wanted to, but I don't really totally want to disappear. But so we sat out and made the decision. Do we what do we want to do? Ask my sisters, who generally assume when I uh ask them to come together that I already have an answer. That it just it's my kind way of informing them what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, I've seen that happen before for you.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's kind of like the last podcast. But the the uh but this was like wasn't like that. And I had to tell them three or four times, I don't have a plan. Y'all need to were they were they shocked by that? They really were. It I don't think they believed me for six months. The but we I said, do we want to, you know, what do we want to do with the with this company going forward? Because, you know, uh generation one was pretty much out of the picture. And so that we sat down and said, do we want to bet on our generation three and the the the skilled professionals that are here to to just let them let them run with it. And that's what we decided to do. We would we want to bet on the three of y'all that I'm looking at here, and and the other 700 or 800 or whatever there are.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah, we're knocking on the door, 800 employees. Nice, which is crazy. It is yeah, that's makes you want to go throw up.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

You know, if I told you my I asked what Daniel International, which is now fleur, one time, how many people work here? And he said, I hope at least half of them.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

So anyway, that I think that's but anyway, we decided to to go forward that and so that is what I have primarily been working on for the last two or three years. We we spent a lot of time and with a lot of help and consultants and and and got the the process done where we the business side of it is clicking right along. But that that but the family side of how to govern and guide and those are the things we're working on. Uh sure. Setting up your states and all these these things are are are a challenge and they they're important, they need to be done, because the very last thing I'd want to do is not have my business in order, and then if something were to happen to me, to have it hurt the business.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Because if you don't have your estate planned properly, and you you can you there's a lot of businesses fail when people aren't properly planned, just assume they're gonna live forever. And when they don't, um, you know, taxes, things like that can take the cash out of a business, and that's that can be fatal.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

Right. Well, and and not to mention, you know, transition's always tough and change is difficult, you know. But you know, like you made the statement, well, you were already doing it, you know, and you're talking to Mitchell. You know, it was, and so there's all of it. It seems, you know, from watching all of this, you know, transition take place, there's always gonna be, you know, ups and downs and headaches and questions and stuff like that. But it seems like it's been such a natural handoff of like, okay, all right, you know, like this this makes sense. Here we go. And then it's just a matter of just you know, syncing everything up and uh kind of settle and get it going, you know, and and it's a testament to both of you as leaders. One that, you know, has been pushing and pulling and carrying the weight, but then also, you know, investing in Mitchell, who's been ready and willing, and then just showing that capability and saying, hey, all right, I've got it from here, you know, and and just watching the handoff has been really cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Well, I think it's one of those things that you see in Steve's life that you really don't do anything laxadasically, right? I mean, you you stop, you think about it, you figure on it, you roll it around about 50 times, and then you get to where you're going, right? Sometimes, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

And I mean there's the occasional off the cuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah, well, I mean, I get that, but um, you know, so so that that's the business side of it. What we've been doing personally.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Zooming, zoom meetings, and I didn't have any idea how many boards I was on and how much time that takes. It's ridiculous. So we're I'm in the process of my next phase of my life is de boarding myself.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Deboarding yourself. It's exact, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

But but you know, to to back to the transition stuff, uh, there's so many good people here. I've been blessed my whole life. I mean, if you go all the way back to Wendell and I lived side by side in trailers for when we were kids. Wow. Or he was younger than me, but but we've followed the same jobs and would you know be parks not too far apart. You know, Mark and Barry came on board in the early 80s of found Mark in Mississippi on a job running a cash register and a truck stop. Barry came to work at uh pretty early on with the uh as a mechanics helper like two weeks out of high school.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

And we've just been collect we have collectively added good people to this process all along. The the you know, the good Lord has put a lot of people in our lives. But I think, you know, that goes, you know, goes back to the early when when I grew up, the construction industry when I was a child was was so much different than the world we live in now. There were no seat belts, no rollover cabs. I can remember pieces of equipment, which I was really fascinated by as a child because I would go to work every day. I, you know, I was one of those little tagalong kids. If dad left the house, you know, I guess it's a good thing I didn't have an iPad, but because I probably would have never left. But I would go with dad wherever, wherever he went if he would let me go. And I even remember you got to stay in the truck for this one, son. I've heard that a few times. But anyway, the but I remember as a kid, you know, the the the world was such a different place, you know. There um Wendell's father, who many of you know is the world famous Marlowe, he ran a piece of equipment in the ear in the late 60s. And on the in the then in the wintertime you put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator to keep the machine a little warmer. And it had two Playboy Centerfalls on it. That was very fascinating to a 10-year-old.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Um and it just fit.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Marlowe. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Yeah, it fit the whole process. Yeah. And so so we go from there to where we are where we are coming to that praise before every meeting and says the pledge, and and uh so so my journey, life's journey, and my faith journey is is is key into what has happened and how well I think things have turned out.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

That you know, I went from being raised with beer drinking. Marlowe also taught me how to drink beer when I was 12 or 13 or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Let's let's let's back up a little bit on your early life here. So Miller Ponies, man. So where were you born at?

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Where were you born? I was born in Munich, Germany while dad was serving in the military.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, so you're born in Munich, Germany. Yeah. Okay. They say I was. Yeah, you don't remember any of that, but your first memories were where?

SPEAKER_02 12:18

In Bellbuckle, Tennessee on the farm. Um, my I spent on so much time as a as a really youngster as with my granddad. Yeah. Because dad was a was away working during the week a lot.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

And uh was your dad had Wright Brothers started then?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yes, they started in oh, you want to go way back. Yeah. They started they started business in 1961, the same day my sister was born.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah. That Cindy Cindy was born. And you were born when?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

I was born in 58.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Okay. There we go. Yeah. Well, it's a fact. It's been a minute.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

It has a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So y'all grew up in Bell Buckle.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

We we did, or we first four or five years anyway. And but they started with they borrowed a bulldozer from my grandfather, had one on the farm and started doing work when Dak got back out of the army digging ponds and working, and they ultimately started doing land clearing.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Do you remember any of that?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

I do.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

You do?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah. The first thing I can I remember some stuff there at the farm, but I remember living in Newport, Tennessee. Yeah. And the the the big deal was it was the first brand new bulldozer they'd ever bought was coming in to clear I-40 through from Newport towards the North Carolina line, which was pretty nasty rough ground, if you think about it. And I remembered that. I remember they hit a whisk, they were came up on a whiskey steel that was still hot.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Up there at Newport.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

And uh I remember those stories and you know, those kinds of things. And so we moved. Dad was one that wanted to keep his family with him. I think uh that's a blessing for us. And you know, and we went to church every Sunday. Um, you know, and I would sit there and think about bulldozers during church instead of listening like I should and as a kid. And but it it but anyway, we and we moved, if I remember right, it's like 12 times. I went to 12 different schools before I graduated from high school. Wow. We moved so much as a as a kid.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

And that was all over the state of Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

All in all in the state of Tennessee from from Newport to Jackson, Medina, Jackson Humboldt down in there.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

So it's just job to job. Job job. Everybody stayed together. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

They uh they did subcontractor work up and from the first six or seven years, and I believe they got their first prime contract in the 67. And in 68, they got five jobs in one lady. And uh that was the oh hell, they're going broke.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Now what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah, yeah. That's when they had to, you know, buy some some more equipment, which was I think kind of frightening too.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

And yeah. So you were 10 then? You were 10. So 10. So it got real when you were about 10 years old, right? It got well. It got really, really serious. It did, and it it's been spinning up ever since. Uh it really hadn't stopped at.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

No. But you know, one of the things I remember, if if I could just tell the story for a minute, uh, I think most many of the people that live around here know where Hamilton Place Mall, not Hamilton Place, excuse me. Uh Northgate Mall is in in Chattanooga.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

They're off of right off the interstate there.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Uh at 153 in Hickson Pike.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

And we were grading that. And I was that was 1970, the summer of 1970, Dad and I were staying, I was staying with him during the during the weeks on summer vacation. And they that was the union was still very strong in Chattanooga at that time, and they were protesting every day. There were picket lines and stuff because I think we were non-union. And dad dad, um, anyway, so we that was very fascinating. I would move the equipment around, help fuel it up. We had guard dogs tied off to the equipment that keep people from sabotaging it at night.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

And so you're 12-ish years old at this point.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah, yeah. And that and that's where you know my life has been impacted by a lot of different people on your journey. But that's where I met Charlie Wilson, who is somebody if we you really are to have on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Of Wilson Associates.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Yes, it's Wilson Associates, the surveyors. Charlie was he didn't, he did, he wasn't even in business on his own then. He was working for Whitzit Gavin and Holcomb as a surveyor at that time. But anyway, that's where I first met him. And if any of you have ever had any business with Charlie, you know, when it comes to surveying, he's always right and the rest of the world's wrong. And if you don't understand that, you're obviously an idiot. And uh No, you're not wrong.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

It's a it's also a hereditary thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love them to death. But yes, that is true.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

But I remember sitting in the rebel drive-in next to this project with Charlie explaining to my father, don't you do that because I'm right and they're wrong. I ran that benchmark all the way from the dam, and it is correct, and because we had the whole job built off six inches or something. Oh Lord. Over what, you know, and then it would have just been a simple thing of, yeah, well, it's still in the right place. You just fix the six inches on the driveway or whatever. But anyway, it went on. He was I remembered that like I was going, we gotta move the whole, you know. I was as a little kid, I was just terrified about what could that mean?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Is the whole but anyway, so you I've lost my place, yeah. So you were 12 then. When when did y'all get the river bridge up here in Charleston?

SPEAKER_02 18:15

About that same time. That was yeah. Yes, roughly about the same time.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Did you go to school here in Cleveland then?

SPEAKER_02 18:22

I went to I lived in Cleveland at uh right down from from if you go from south of towards town on from the Y on the other way, where Blythe Ferry and whatever that road is runs it together that we used to be at trailer park, I lived right there. Went to school. You know, the my school story is the last six years we're in two schools, grammar schools, hell.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

You were in Cleveland all the time, then yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

It was like three or four in one year.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

So what were the last two schools?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Cleveland Day School here in which is now TCPS. TS TCPS. Okay, and school that's still in business in Clarksville, Clarksville Academy.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Clarksville Academy. Yeah. So how long were you here in Cleveland at school?

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Three years. And then but I lived in two places here in Athens. We had to move to Athens because we got another job up up there where uh Highway 30 is or uh yeah, Cal 30.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

And then up there in Clarksville, why'd you end up at Clarksville?

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Uh 24 from the state line or five miles south of the state line back to the Montgomery County line.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Okay. And how many years were you there?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

That's where I met that's where I first remember Wendell.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Clarksville?

SPEAKER_02 19:37

He was just a little bitty kid then.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah. How many years were you in Clarksville?

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Uh three, four, three.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Three years. So lots of things happened in Clarksville, right? So met your wife there, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:48

I did. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Right. I didn't know it at the time, but I did. Okay. So took me a while. Yeah, so Lou Ann's from Clarksville, right. She is. When did y'all you graduated when? What year was it? 76. 76, and you got married when? 7 late 78. Late 78. One of the funny stories that you have told me about your time in Clarksville. You know what I'm about to say.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

No, I have no idea. There was a lot of them.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Oh the one that I've always laughed about is your story about you getting pulled over. Oh, the speeding ticket? Yeah, tell everybody about the speeding ticket. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

I never even thought about that. Yeah, totally. Well, my it starts with my uncle, who is quite an inter was quite an interesting Yes. James Wright was quite an interesting person on his own.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

And those of you all that have not had the privilege of meeting James and Robert in your life, oh my lord, total polar opposites, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yes. What one was the other one wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Absolutely. But anyways, keep going. Keep going. But so your speeding ticket.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

So James came came home with one day and said, Hey, I bought an airplane. Well, you're just sitting there. 1974 four or five.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Did anybody have a pilot lost?

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Well, it was no. No. No. What would you do with that? The Ray Blanton was governor because he bought it from Ray's brother. Because they were uh he'd quit the construction business was waning because he'd refused to take any state contracts, or it was probably illegal for him to.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

But they didn't, they anyway, they were B and B construction company was struggling. So he bought this this airplane. And I wrote in a time or two and thought, wow, this is cool. I want to learn how to fly. Uh and so I asked mom and dad, and they they paid for me to learn to fly. And I, you have to be 17 to get your license. And I remember having to wait two or three months before I could get my take my test to get my license. And so that would have been the fall of my senior year in high school. Wow. So by the time Time you get around to prom time, because I remember it's about that time of year because I had two dates in one night. Neither one of them was my wife.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

We're not asking for confession.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

She was she was a little mad at me at the time. Yeah, okay. Came in, you know, come and came and went. Um, but I was going between, and my father had had bought me a car, a 1974 Mercury Comet with a six-cylinder engine, because he felt sure that was the slowest car that he could buy. And so I'm coming down I7 or Highway 79 into Clarksville, right under the interstate, and had had the it was showing 95 on the speedometer. And this guy pulls me over, said, You run 110 and a 55. I said, I need to see your pilot's license. And I'd had them four months.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

And you know, and this is this kid with all this hair he's looking at, and and I hand him my pilot's license, and he went. I can't really think of a way to say it without saying bad words. You went crazy. He went crazy. That ain't what I wanted to see, boy. Let me see your driver's license. I said, sir, it's what you asked for. I didn't think it's what you wanted, but it's what you asked for. And I trained not to lie to police officers. That's but anyway, so that uh I had to go to court with that one because I was at a charge run there. Reckless driving, being an idiot, and I don't whatever else he could think of to charge me with. But uh I have I waited until the summer that you know it was two or three months before court time, and I waited until the day before to ask my dad, can you go to court with me tomorrow? He said, Court, what have you done? No, no. Well, I got they said I was doing 110. He said, No way, you should have told me I'd have got that ticket tore up because that car won't go that fast. I said, Way to go. I'm glad you there's no way that car will go that fast.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

But anyway, so so by the time you're graduating high school, it sounds like the company was really turning a corner and really starting to take off.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

There's there's they're started in the interstate construction business, they're on their second or third, uh you know, this is the end of the end of the interstate system in its completion, or at least in Tennessee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

Did you ever have any sort of thought in your mind like you wanted to do anything else? Did that was there something else that you're like, you know what, I might did you have a choice?

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Did you have a choice to do anything else?

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Well, I'm I guess I maybe I did, but I didn't think of it like that. No, I didn't want to, there was nothing else I wanted to do. I wouldn't do it. You know, I really when I was a little kid and I grew up, I wanted to drive the low boy when I grew up.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Well, that was the coolest thing ever, riding around with dad and the low boy and all the towns and the doja blade hanging off both sides and hitting stuff and it was pretty rough.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

So even though it's it was moving around and and hopping around, you still had family together. Yes. And it was a uh an experience that captivated you seeing everything going on and watching the growth of this.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

I yes, and I think the people that do this work have an experience in life that I wish so many others could. Because you see something done, you go back in 10 years and you see how it's progressing, you see the businesses built on the side of the road that you help build. And you know, and and you feel like you've contributed. And so many people don't understand what it's like to be successful with a project, and that uh is I I just I think that's something that would do people a lot of good to to succeed at something that they struggle with. I know Robert Davidson, another another name that you know if you could get his alumni association here on a podcast and learn a lot about.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

So Robert Davidson is he was the auditor accountant for Wright Brothers for how many years still?

SPEAKER_02 26:17

1975, six, seven, somewhere in there till he retired. What has it been four, five, six years ago?

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Yeah, so Robert. Maybe ten now. Yeah, it's probably been ten. He Robert is a fantastic accountant here seven years. Yes. Fantastic accountant, okay. I mean, he is widely respected in the industry, but the story is for a construction company to do these DOT jobs, you have to have an audited financial statement so you can get bonding capacity. You got to have a financial institution to back you in case for some reason you go under and you can't finish the job. You gotta have a financial backing on that. And you got to have this audited financial statement. And Robert was a master of it. He he he did it for pretty much the vast majority of the contractors in Tennessee for forever.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

I think at one time that firm was one of the largest contractor specialty accounting firms in the country. Yeah, they were they did a lot of work and they were unique in that they were willing to travel. You know, you didn't have to go see them. And they were really good at it. Yeah. But he was he he summed up the emotion I was talking about because we weren't up and for for anybody that's and there's a lot of people on this that'll listen to this that have that worked on the project, and uh, you know, that's where I met Jeff Ball, another we don't I I digress, but he was and the Lucre family. But going through the mountains there on the Tennessee, North Carolina border, he was he'd come up to visit, and I think he wanted to see if we were actually doing the work he was saying we were doing. Uh but uh he and we were up on top of the mountain at the end of the of a cut right there on the Tennessee, North Carolina border. It's in one of these pictures on the wall right here. It's probably a three or four hundred foot deep cut in rock. And we're at the top of it looking down at the loader running before daylight, loading the trucks and and the sun's coming, just starting to come up. You can see it peeking, you know, breaking daylight, I guess would be the right a better term for what was really going on. And he got really quiet. It's and and the for the people that know him, he never shuts up. Never shuts up. Uh he's got something in. I said, Are you okay? He said, Yeah, yeah. I said, This is beautiful. Well, yeah, but yes, it is. Because well, you get to do that, you build beautiful things for a living. He said, You can ride your grandkids through here. I need to go do that too, make them go up there the uh and say, we did this, or we I was a part of this, and you know and he said, I can't ride my grandkids by your dad's house and say, you should have seen that tax return. It's just not the same. So I you know, so building doing things with your hands right are I think are are valuable and and it's it creates a sense of worth and in confidence that I wish more people in life could could understand.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Beautiful thing about our industry.

SPEAKER_04 29:30

Yeah, it's gotta be wild now at this point, you know, just driving across the state and seeing how your family has had a hand in changing the infrastructure of the state. Yeah, one of that's pretty cool. As I drive and beyond.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

As I drive around now, I wish we'd somehow created a map of what we actually done and who did what was beside it. Because I ride I was riding through something other than go to my job stop here or there, you know. And going up the interstate, and I'm not sure where some of these quit that go all the way back. And quite honestly, for the last several years, uh I don't even know where a lot of them are.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Yeah. Yeah. A whole bunch of stuff. So you you got out of Clarksville Academy, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

What'd you do then?

SPEAKER_02 30:20

I went to Austin P and had more fun than anybody's ever had.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

There you go. For a year and a half. Oh, a year and a half. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I thought it was only a semester, so it was a year and a half.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

No, it was I did two full semesters on probation the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

And then got a and fit actually I finished three. Well, I attended class for three semesters.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

So then I decided to get married. You decided to get married. Or we decided. I didn't We, we. Okay, so you and Lou Ann got married, and then what about college?

SPEAKER_02 30:54

I I never really cared.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Because I knew I could run a bulldozer, and that's what I was gonna do. And this other stuff was because my father said, You're gonna go to college. And I said, Maybe I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

So so I bring this up because you know, the interesting thing about it is, you know, my dad told me I had to go to college too. Oh, did he? Yeah, yeah. You and I have talked about this. You're a little bit better son than I was. Yeah, but maybe uh we've talked about how my dad, John Simpson, forced me to go. You and I have, you know, his I was where Steve was. I wasn't having as much fun as you, but I wanted to quit and just go to work, and dad's cure for me. Yeah, well, dad dad's cure for me was putting me on a 55-pound jackhammer working at night on I-24 and Chattanooga. Okay. I was like, forget this. Yeah. So I went to the city.

SPEAKER_05 31:44

Yeah, call it a pretty good option. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Yeah, yeah. But but the point, the point in all this is in our society today, you know, Steve, you were at the point where you looked around and were like, hey, I can make a living without doing this. Why do I need to do this? You know, there's 20 years between you and me, my age group and everything, there was this huge push for everybody to go to college, right? Massive push. Felt like I had to do it. You're gonna fail if you didn't. Fail if you didn't. Yep. Oh, yeah. And then now, what's the trend that we see? I'd have to go to college. You don't have to go to college.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

I think, yeah, the world, the world is turning a little bit. And I've, you know, the emotions I was describing about doing work with your hands. And quite honestly, the and I've I've watched it ever since for my whole life. Is I know that what there was a girl, uh a young lady in the my our graduating class that went to University of Alabama for like four or five years and got an interior design degree and then went to school to build paralegal so she could get a job. Well, and I think the yeah, I mean, there's that story is repeated so so many times. Yeah. And and you go, well, I always knew what I was gonna do. And you think about the head start of of earning full-time grown-up wages as a teenager, honestly. Big deal. It's a big deal versus spending the money to go to school. So you you should be smart with it. Yeah, but there's this is a great industry.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Uh any anytime you build things with your hands and and do it well, it's very rewarding. I don't understand why it was always such a bad thing. That's how we get to to you, Pie Center, Dr. Cash, and then that whole story. I thought, my, she's the first first honest professional educator I've ever met.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

I think it's kind of interesting that you know, your life story, you've kind of come full circle here at the end where you've helped get the Pie Center off the ground. And it's a great thing. It's a great thing. These kids are doing what Steve Wright did, right? But but here's the other thing that you know you've shown me over time. I mean, look, you know, you've been my mentor for 20 years, 20 years plus now. You have always, even though you didn't go to college, you've been a lifelong learner, right? True. I th I think that's a story in the thing, too, is just because you don't go to college, just because you don't have a piece of paper on the wall, it doesn't mean you don't need to be a lifelong learner. Right. That's been one of those things you've been preaching at me for 20 years, right? You've been on me as much as John Simpson was about continuing to learn.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

I've I've probably had more edu more formal education than most in that I've paid Robert Davidson and the lawyers and uh and all these consultants so much over the years to learn the things that probably would have been a lot simpler had I had a more formal education, it would have it would have been easier, but not maybe not as much fun.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

Yeah, maybe, maybe. Well, you know, nowadays through mentors and through, you know, if if you can, you know, apply yourself and read or listen, you know, you're gonna learn a lot by default nowadays, you know, what what's available. You know, there's really you know, if somebody's motivated enough, they can put themselves through a basic formal education on their own, say totally gathering resources.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Yeah, so the only thing that's really holding back today is themselves. Right. Yeah, it's your own motivation that's holding you back. And if you choose to if you choose to grow and learn, you can do anything you want to. And 100%. You know, Steve, you did it when there wasn't YouTube and these phones where there's stuff on them every five seconds and everything else. It's kind of a once again, I think it's a neat deal that you took the educational path that you did, and it's come full circle with the Pi Center. It's a pretty neat deal.

SPEAKER_04 35:43

And this is just my take on it. You're talking about being on you know, the side of a mountain watching the sunrise and somebody being kind of awestruck. It's like how beautiful it is and how fulfilling it is. You get to build these things. And you look at today's climate, the need for more people in in trade industries doing stuff with their hands, and knowing that like we've got more people, especially younger ages, in cubicles now more than ever, staring at Excel spreadsheets and you know, doing things that at the end of the day they can't really see any sort of progress. No wonder there's this spike in anxiety and depression and worry. You know, there is something to building things with your hands being outside those moments when it's it's got that chill in the air, you can see your breath, and the sun's coming up over the hill. Like that's the kind of stuff people need, you know. Rossless stuff that you can't replicate in a cubicle.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

No, it is, or you see it coming full circle, or getting that diesel engine to crank after you've had it in a million pieces in the floor. For the first time going to hey, is it's gonna rotten or not? Yeah. Because most of that stuff Barry worked on. I go, surely that's I sure hope this worked.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

You know, any so let's walk down your project path. So you talked about your education here. You decided you were done after three semesters, you got married. There were quarters. Quarters, quarters, quarters, okay. Yeah, old school stuff, sir.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Tuition was $112 a quarter for a full-time load.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Boy, what in the world? Not today. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

My mom was willing to pay for that. I don't know sure why, if she'd known what was going on.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Some things parents don't know either. They don't know everything. Um so you remember that. Yeah, I'll try to remember that. I got three boys up there. My kids are listening to that. It does not apply to you. But so you you and Luann get married, you live in Clarksville. What do you do?

SPEAKER_02 37:55

No, we moved to, well, when I proposed, where she said, Well, where we live, or something like that. There was a discussion about that. And uh I said, Well, I've always always lived in Tennessee. So about a month after we got engaged, we got a job in Mississippi.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

Now, was she prepared for all this coming into it?

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Like, did did she have an idea or she's grown accustomed to it in the last 48 years, but bless her heart. She's just been a great life partner.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

So, where at Mississippi was it?

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Downtown Mantachy, Mississippi. And where in the world is that? Mantache.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

I'm sorry, I is a I don't know my Mississippi to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

It's a four-way stop, or it was then, I don't know. It may be a city now. A four-way stop between two below on Highway 78. We were building a section of Highway 78 right by the Tom Big B waterway, which is middle of nowhere. Pretty much, yeah. It's probably an hour to anywhere or two hours. How far over it is in Memphis?

SPEAKER_01 38:58

So I'll take a segue here for a second to kind of give everybody some thought processing this. When I started applying for jobs back in the day, 25 years ago, 30 years ago, when I was getting out of college, I told Steve this. I applied with a company called Hill Brothers. And they were in northern Mississippi, and I went down there and they offered me pennies to go to work. Okay. I mean pennies. But their sales point to me was you can buy as many acres of land as you want to, boy, for $600 an acre down here. Wow. So that's the world where Steve was working at.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

So and why do I want land here?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

So you were in the middle of nowhere. So you take poor Luann from Clarksville too.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

That ground was probably worth $400.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh you take poor Luann from Clarksville.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

From the city of yeah, of Lord knows how many to to to nowhere. And yeah, it was it was a different time and play. Mississippi was like going to a different world from from from where I'd been at that time. If you if you go back into history, it's at the it's at the end of the civil rights. Civil rights movement. Yeah. Different world. Klu Klux Klan taken up in beer joints and on the street corners. It's just a different different, like nothing I'd ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. Or been exposed to. It was kind of sad.

SPEAKER_04 40:21

Yeah. And how long were you there?

SPEAKER_02 40:23

We lived there for 18 months or so and then moved to Greenwood, Mississippi, which is where we ran into the touchstone family.

SPEAKER_04 40:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Mark's father or stepfather ran a dozer for us. And and uh if you didn't know Ed Touchstone, you should find somebody that does and talk to him about it because he was quite the interesting character himself. He was a guy that had been a superintendent most of his life, knew how to build a road. I mean, really knew. And he he didn't want, he was tired of that foolishness, and he wanted to run a dozer. And he was a good enough operator that we bought a dozer to his specifications just for him. Whoa. Wow. He wanted a angle blade with twin tilt, not just one, twin two tilts on. I'd have two. I don't know why. But but anyway, he was he was so helpful to me in that I'd be trying to get all these things shepherded in the right direction or herded like herding cats.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

So what position were you at in the country?

SPEAKER_02 41:30

I was a foreman, but I was really running the job, most technically a foreman. And and but I'd go by and it he'd wave me over. Come here, boy. And and he would say, That dude's an idiot, you need to do this and that, you know. And would tell me what to do. Uh and so he helped me run the dozer, which I think was probably more fun from him sitting on the seat of the of the bulldozer, watching what was going on and make me do what he wanted done, or get me to do whatever he wanted done. And you know, but I remember when he you need to go over and hire a boy Mark, he needs something to get him out of that truck stop. So he Mark came to work as and he he did that and uh was working on helping check grade or something. And I think I heard him tell the story the other day that after a little while he figured out that when it rained, he had to go home. But the maintenance crew was still working and he wanted to get paid.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Mark is an economist of anything. He knows how to count.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

He can definitely count. And anyway, so he got off and he came in, he went to school for three or four hours and would come in to fuel the equipment at lunch and then stay after dark when he'd work eight hours a day and go to school or eight or ten, something like that. So that's how we got started down there road. Yeah. And I think the money was so good he decided to follow it. He you know, he should have gone to college and been a whatever, but he didn't. He said he decided to come work and follow, then work with his hands.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

So after Greenwood, what was the next opportunity?

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Oh, we came home here for a little while, trailer set up back there where the where we tore down Lloyd's, that's where it was and moved her trailer there.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Okay, and then came back here.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

Head back here, and then we went to Russell, Louette and I went to Russellville, Kentucky.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

So, real quick, the story on you coming back here when your family was here before you went to Clarksville, you bought the farm, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:34

They they bought this uh the original farm where Vokker is today while we were building interstate up here in the in the early 70s because it was at the end for folks that aren't as old as I am. The prime interest rate when I graduated from high school was nine percent.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Crazy.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yes, which sounds crazy today.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

And it went up from there.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

It went up from there. It was like 21 when we bought that farm because the the guy that they bought it from was an acquaintance of probably my uncle's since he was the socializing one.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

And uh, and they he couldn't make the payments anymore. He had an interest-only loan on it, and so they bought that farm right over here where the big house is.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

What what year was that then?

SPEAKER_02 44:20

I'm gonna say 72 or 3.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Anyway, he and he was an interesting guy. He is also the first one that said this should be an industrial park. He was planning on it being an industrial area.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Then he talked in 1970. Really?

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Yeah. Because of railroad access, the river, and the power. He that's wild. That is, you know, dad didn't tell me. Dad told me that a few years ago. He said, Well, you know, Grover's one figure this out about the time Bach was going on, is when he said he said Grover predicted this all those years ago.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Wow. And it took all the way to 2009. Wow. 10. 10. Yeah, nine. Somebody sell the property. Yeah. Wow. What a what a story that is. Yeah, just being able to see see that. That's vision. That's vision. Definitely. Well, Steve, thank you for the opportunity you've given all of us. Thank you for coming on the podcast and just sharing with us your window. Yeah, what a great story. Great story, cool story. You ought to be proud of it.

SPEAKER_04 45:18

A lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

You ought to be proud of it.

SPEAKER_04 45:20

So quite a journey. Jared, with that, let's uh let's wrap it up. Wind it up. Thank you all for listening in. Don't forget, hey, we've got a lot of episodes. We've got a growing catalog. Give it a listen. And uh there's so much to this company, a lot of good conversations happening. But until then, you know, hey, listen in next time. This has been Talking Grit. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

That's gonna do it for this episode of Talking Grit. Thanks for listening, and thanks to everyone out there putting in the work day in and day out. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow the show and share it with someone who knows the value of hard work. We'll catch you next time right here on Talking Grit.