THANKS FOR THE CHEESEBURGERS GRANDPA MILLER

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 05/11/2008

On the morning of May 3d Grandpa Tom Miller arrived at the Havasu 95 Speedway,at the Sara Park in Lake Havasu City-Arizona, to insure that his concession stands were going to be well stocked for another evening of racing and hungry fans. Later in the day he took up his familiar position behind his double size grills. Most of the time you could barely see him in the midst of all that sweet smelling cooking smoke that enveloped him. But there was something drastically different on this particular night. Grandpa Miller is in the process of retiring from the business he loves so much.

Grandpa Miller's Hot Foods has been a haven for hungry race fans for over two years now at the speedway. But this is just not another race track concession stand. Miller's long years of concession experience turned his race track food into something special. First off it's some of the finest concessionaire food you'll ever eat. The other aspect, that separates his booths for those at other tracks, is the impressive diversity of the menu. The lines of hungry and thirsty fans are often long but well organized procedures caters to them in very quick order.

Grandpa Miller has been in the concession business for 60 years. That's really quite remarkable because he's only 65 years old. With his ever present smile on his face he explained those numbers and said "I started back when I was about five years old. My parents were in the concession business and when I was 26 I started my own concession business so I could pay child support."

His newly formed concession business began in the Los Angeles area with dog and horse shows. It wasn't long before the business graduated to some very impressive venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, the Shrine Auditorium and the Starlight Bowl just to name a few. Chuckling Miller added "then I went through a divorce and lost it all." His next move landed Miller in Parker-Arizona where he opened up a bar and restaurant and ran it for awhile.

Miller next made a surprise change by moving back to Los Angeles where he became a manufacturing engineer for Boeing the internationally famous defense contractor. During his tenure there he was in charge of getting four major space stations built. From that point Miller tried retirement. But old schoolers, with such a high work ethic like him, generally don't find the life of a retiree suitable. It wasn't long before Miller was in the concession business again this time at the famed Griffith Park in Los Angeles where he served food to patrons at the park's train and pony rides.

But there's another aspect to old schoolers with high work ethics: they think on a much larger scale. He opened a factory called The Popcorn Connection and it wasn't long before his special blend of gourmet popcorn was literally being shipped all over the world. Miller again decided to try retirement and moved to Lake Havasu City. The second retirement didn't take either and that led him to back to the concession business at the Havasu 95 Speedway. Laughing, he said "I just got bored so I've running this thing for two years here at the race track. My legs and knees are so tired right now I can barely stand up."

When asked in inevitable question about getting bored again and returning to the concession business, Miller said "I don't know if I'll get back into the food business again. I might go back into the junk business. I enjoy buying the contents of storage containers that are up for auction because the owners abandoned them. I just have a thing about opening boxes without having any idea what's inside of them. I just get a big kick out of it. When I was running the Shrine and Hollywood Bowl concessions my ex wife's father used to have garage sales in front of my house. On Wednesday I would be off so I would go to an auction and buy 15 or 20 boxes for about $200. I'd bring them home and go through them just like a kid at Christmas time. Then I'd give the father in law all of the stuff and tell him just give me my $200 back so I can go back to the auction next week. I did that quite often, it's just an enjoyment going through other people's junk." It probably wouldn't surprise anyone if Miller turned other people's junk into a high scale antique store. Miller's latest attempt at retirement actually is good timing for the Havasu 95 Speedway. They will be concluding their highly successful 2007-2008 winter racing season on May 17th. But when racing returns to the local quarter mile paved oval this fall it's certain that someone new will be on duty and run the track's concession stands. Whomever that replacement might turn out to be they're going to have a big grill to fill. Thanks for the cheeseburgers Grandpa Miller.

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