in the 70s, Food of the Seventies

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Commentor Name:	Greg Arnold Camp
Comments left:	Hi to all the fans of CAMP'S BUTTERED BEEF STEAKS and the other products we used to produce! To set the record straight, I am the grandson of Rayford & Marguerite Camp, the original founders of Camp Steak Co., Inc. Ray passed away in the late seventies from complications after a surgery to the arteries in his legs which were blocked. Marguerite or "Mimi" Camp followed her husband 5 years later when she suffered a major stroke. Their son and my father, Ronald Arnold the took over the company, I had been working for my grandfather as a delivery driver for 7 years at this point. My father then brought me in to work the production floor and into the office to assemble the billing for the accounts. The bookkeeper, Hoover Uchizono had been with the company for many years as had the plant manager, Palmer Holden. Hoover told my father he would "train me" the working of the office and said he thought "I was capable of taking over" when he was to retire. Well, his retirement came early. He said he was going to retire in two months! On his last day, I had to run out for parts for one of the machines that had broke down, and when I came back he was gone! He left the keys on my desk with a not that simply said "GOOD LUCK". Shortly thereafter, my father became ill and couldn't come in to work as often. Then Palmer, the plant manager and the one who knew these machines was let go by my father for reasons I won't get into. Now I was faced with running the office and the production as well as repairing the machinery. I worked 18-20 hours daily, six days a week! It was hectic and very hard on me. As the machinery became unrepairable, I began to replace machines with ones that were more reliable, faster and needed less employees to run so our payroll went from 30 employees down to 6. I felt this was quite an accomplishment! The stores in the meantime were being delivered to by 6 independant drivers and because of the machinery at first breaking down daily, sales slumped store displays began to dissapear or got smaller. It was then I received a call from one of our largest accounts and I was summoned to a meeting by the buyer for that account. At the meeting he gave me a choice, either we bring our products in threw the warehouse or not at all. One by one the accounts wanted to be warehouse delivered to cut down the amount of vendors to each grocery store. The delivery drivers after losing distribution, sued the Corporation and my parents and it was in the court system for 10 years eating up money in attorney fees and court fees. At the end of trial, we had lost! Don't know how but seemed biased in a Santa Monica Superior Court (big corp. vs. little suppliers). Judgement was for a combined total of $800,000 which was alot in those days. I continued to run the company until 1996 and decided to sell the product line to RG Meat, and no it's not Roger Green it's Roger Gaskin. This is where it stands today. So whatever stories you have read from people I have never heard of...this is the true story of CAMP STEAK CO.,INC. I had 29 years with the company and at the end was the Vice-President with my mother being President. My father passed away some 5 years ago. A year after I gave up the company I suffered a major heart attact and this brings us to an end. The products are still being made by Roger Gaskin AKA RG Meats and is in Los Angeles on Olympic Boulevard. Hope you all enjoyed hearing the truth and not gossip.
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