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Published on: 12/28/2007
Last Visited: 12/28/2007
Carving a good life: Moore finds passion as teen
Sam Moore really does cleave meat at Sam's Meat Cleaver in Morristown.It's not surprising he's good at it, considering he's been cutting meat for 43 of his 60 years.
His regular customers know he treats every order as if it were something he would eat himself, and it's that attitude that bring people back to the specialty market year after year.
He learned meat cutting by doing it.
"I started work when I was 13," he said.
The job was at Goodson and Mayes grocery on West Third North Street, where he cleaned equipment and did other odd jobs in his early teens.
"I worked there 17 years," he said."I started cutting meat when I was 17."
He was attending school at the same time, which was the beginning of his life of doing several things at once.
"I've always liked to work," he said.
He graduated from the old Morristown High School, and found time to attend Carson-Newman College, where he earned a degree in business administration.
For 14 years he worked at the Department of Human Services, 12 of those years as the director of the Morristown office.
Sam said the smartest thing he ever did was marry Sharon on Dec. 4.1971.
"She's the love of my life," he said.
At the time, she was working at the juvenile probation office.Later she taught school for two years in Dandridge.She took maternity leave from teaching and never returned.Instead, the couple decided to build a store and go into business for themselves.They opened on July 28, 1978.
Starting a new business is tough going at times.Sam continued working at the Department of Human Services during the day.He worked at the store evenings and Saturdays.He credits Sharon for making the business the success it is today.While he was at his regular job, Sharon worked in the store.
"She kept the place going," Sam said.
He finally moved full time into the meat business in 1984, and it has consumed most of his working life since then.He has no complaints about that at all, because he loves what he does.It isn't just work, but fun, he said.
"This was my hobby.It's my golf game," he said, waving a hand around the store.
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We don't try to compete with the big stores," Sam said.
What he does do is treat customers as friends.Some of them started visiting the store when they were children, and they are still coming as married adults with children of their own.
He admits it's a business concept that has largely been forgotten in streamlined modern times.An old-fashioned work ethic and a desire to serve people in a personal, friendly manner, isn't seen much in the 21st century.
"This place is kind of a dinosaur," he said.
Not all of his life is wrapped up in Sam's Meat Cleaver.He has to think a few moments to begin to list all the community activities and organizations he's been involved with.
At the top of the list is First Baptist Church of Morristown, where he is a deacon and Sunday school teacher.He's held many positions in the church over the years.
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"I've been attending church there since nine months before I was born," Sam said.
He is on the board of directors of the Senior Citizen Center in Morristown, and has been president of it.
He also chaired the board of directors at the Boys and Girls Club of Morristown, been chapter chairman of the Hamblen County Chapter of the American Red Cross, served as chairman of the United Way of Hamblen County board of directors, and chair of the board at the Youth Emergency Shelter.
One of his most unusual sidelines, one he's had since 1984, is court appointed foreman of the Hamblen County grand jury.
While jury members serve for short periods, the foreman is appointed for two-year terms.
Every time his term is up, the judges have reappointed him.
Sam and Sharon have two sons.Russell, 31, and his wife, Jill, live in Henderson, a ways north of Nashville.Matthew, 26, and his wife, Carrie, live in Morristown.Sam said they are expecting their first grandchild any day now.
The couple has slowed down a bit, but not all that much.
Sam has trouble thinking of what life would be like if he wasn't busy.
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