When one leaves home to attend the university of his choice, it is an unspoken rule that he will be there for four years, and then it is on to different things. What happens when you meet someone who has done exactly the opposite of that? Take a tour of the many businesses in Oxford, and I bet you will find some people who opted to stay in town after graduation.
One particularly interesting person that has been living in Oxford for about 23 years now is Lawrence Gallegos. You can often find him running around the kitchen of SDS Pizza, located on Chestnut Street next to the railroad tracks. This has been his job since 1993.
Lawrence was born in Santa Rosa, New Mexico on August 16, 1971. His family decided to move to Oxford in 1980. Why move from New Mexico to Ohio? “Well, my aunt worked at Miami University, and my parents were going through a divorce,” explains Lawrence. “They thought it would be a great place to raise a kid.” This large move to the Midwest is only the beginning of what would become a very passionate love for Oxford and its surroundings.
“I grew up, and of course, decided on going to Miami University,” says Lawrence. “I mean, it was the logical choice.” Thinking of the future, he applied for a job at SDS Pizza during his sophomore year at Miami. Working at SDS wasn’t his only activity, but as the years progressed, he spent more and more time there.
“I was in the Lambda Chi fraternity, and I also participated in some small volunteer efforts, but school and work began to become the only things on my mind,” explained Lawrence.
“Within four months I went from cook to managing a few nights a week,” he explains. Once his boss moved on to other things, he asked Lawrence if he would like to become general manager. Lawrence gladly accepted and has been in that position ever since.
Work did not take away from what he was accomplishing in school. Lawrence graduated from Miami with a double major in botany and chemistry. This causes me to wonder whether or not he has ever looked for a job in these fields. “Absolutely not. By the time I graduated, I realized that the people I would be working with would be a bunch of tree-hugging weirdoes,” he explained emphatically. So this something that he never is going to pursue. “At that point that was not what I wanted, but at this point I think it is more of a possibility than it was when I graduated.”
Lawrence is has been around long enough to understand that as you get older your roots seem to grow deeper and deeper into the ground. Wondering what this was all about, I followed him around to see exactly what the general manager was doing. An endless supply of paperwork seems to be the biggest part of his job. He is constantly using the calculator, whether he is adding up the prior days sales, or figuring out why the bank has called to let him know a deposit is short.
“A perfect example of why I look through all this paperwork is discovering trends, and right now I have more applications than ever; also our business has gone down, but our credit card usage has gone up,” he explains. “So this just tells me that no one has cash right now. Everyone wants a job, and everyone is using their credit cards.”
I begin to wonder if this is as easy as it looks. Once Lawrence has sifted through all of his paperwork, he is onto what needs to be ordered. “Now this can be a pain,” he says with a wounded look on his face, “I have been doing this for awhile, but you never know what is going to happen. It is kind of like a big game.”
After seeing what Lawrence goes through every day, I wonder what the best and the worst things are about his job. “Well, I guess the worst is the fact that even though I may take time off, I am really never off,” he replies. “I could be in Chicago, and someone will call me to tell me that they aren’t going to be in or that they are late; and I will be like ‘I am on Lakeshore Drive. Deal with it!’”
I ask him whether that’s really the worst thing or the fact that there isn’t anyone to run the store when he’s not there. “I guess you are right. The fact that I have no one I can trust to take care of all of these issues is what I dislike the most about my job, but that is kind of my fault too” Lawrence says.
With these things in mind, it is hard to believe that Lawrence is still living in Oxford with his two degrees from a respected university. As I am thinking this to myself, he jumps in.
“But what I like the best is my freedom. I mean, I don’t own this place, but I make all of the decisions.” Things begin to grow clear on why he has worked for so long at SDS.
With the type of position that Lawrence holds, he has an interesting relationship with the people of Oxford. He was a student at one time. He has lived here most of his life and employs people and students who live in Oxford. This I found to be the most interesting part of him.
He seems to have a view that is basically almost impossible to find in here. Lawrence has had the opportunity to grow up around college students, actually be considered one of the students by the townspeople and then once again living as a resident of Oxford that is still in contact with the many students on campus.
Editors Note: The author was employed at SDS prior to this story.