Lamar McGrew is 74 years old and has been in Alaska since 2001. He went from being the stepson of a sharecropper to working hard at his own successful small business. Here’s his story.
Q. What brought you to Anchorage?
A. My brother lives here, so I decided to come up and stay. I was going to stay a couple of weeks. I got to like it here, so I stayed.
Where’s home?
I was in Albany, New York. I was born in Alabama, but I moved to New York as a teenager.
Did you mention to me that in Alabama your family was a sharecropping family?
My stepfather, uh-huh.
And what kind of crops did your stepfather have?
Well, they had the corn and they had cotton.
Q. And you helped with both of those before moving on?
A. Yeah, I think I did my four years or something like that.
Well, [in New York] I started out as a roofer in 1971. Did that for about six or seven years. Job started slowing down, so then I went into a little job here, a job there. Then I went to work [in a facility] with the autistic. I worked there for four and a half years. Then after that I went into truck driving. Then I drove a tractor-trailer off and on—10, 12, 14 years off and on.
And after that I took up hairdressing. I went to cosmetology. I was a licensed cosmetologist in 1985. And then did that for a while. And I was doing it off and on until I came to Anchorage.
And when I got up here, I decided I wanted to be cutting lawns and stuff. So, during the summer I got me a lawn mower and I started to work.
Q. You didn’t start working for somebody else?
A. No, start working for me. Off and on I did a few yards here, a few yards there. But I liked it. So I just kept it up. And still doing the same thing: a few yards here, few yards there.
Q. So how long have you been doing it?
A. How many years been doing that? Since 2003.
Q. And what do you like about mowing lawns?
A. Everything. It keeps you pretty much in shape, being that in 2005 I got that diabetic. Uh-huh, yeah. And it just keeps your sugar down. So I’ve been doing it just to keep living. And I’ve been doing pretty good at it.
Q. How has business been improving over the years?
Uh, this year it hasn’t. Last year it was slow and slowed down. I didn’t never do a whole lot of yards anyway. Just enough to try to get by.
Q. I understand you do more than just mowing lawns.
A. Yeah, if they got something that they need moving, cleaning, you know, like somebody want to move out. Say you want to move out of your house here and you left all this in there and you could call me, and I could move it out for you.
Q. Do you yourself move things like refrigerators and stoves? Wouldn’t they be a little heavy?
A. No. Matter of fact, I had to help my girlfriend’s brother move a freezer and a stove Saturday. Took it to the dump. Well, see, speaking of that, when I was growing up — I was 16, yeah, 16. You was working wood, pulp wood. You ever heard of that? Pulp wood? You got to carry it. Now, they don’t do it anymore, but you got to carry your wood on your shoulders and put it on the truck. And some of them about this big around [12-15 inches]. Yeah. And you got to put it on your shoulder and take it to the truck. So that’s the body building, that’s where it started. So we put three to four cords on the truck and they take it to the mill. It’s just kind of big. Just a big log 5 feet in height.
Q. Did you come to think of Alaska as a land of opportunity?
A. That’s what I seen it as, an opportunity. So I was working with my cousin. We were cleaning some building. And as we were driving, I’m looking at all these yards that, you know, a chance to make a few dollars. So that’s what I decided to do. I saved up on my money. All the money that I made, you know, but I wouldn’t spend it. And I saved it up and I bought a Dodge Dakota—a small pickup. Oh yeah, and a couple of lawn mowers. And that’s what I started working with.
Q. So do you have any last words to say to the readers?
A. Well, I would tell all the seniors, “Don’t give up. You may give out, but don’t give up. Keep going. Yeah. Keep going and the more you go, the better you’re going to be.” And like me, I just feel good. And I tell them they can be the same way. They can’t sit around; you just got to do something. I get up. I get up ready to go. I can’t sit. I can’t stay at the house and just sit there. I’m going to find something to do.
Contact Lamar McGrew at L&M Lawns in Anchorage, 907-406-8220. This interview was conducted May 29. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Lawrence D. Weiss is a UAA Professor of Public health, Emeritus, creator of the UAA Master of Public health program, and author of several books and numerous articles.
