David Mayhall started working full time before he turned 18 — now, after decades of hard work, he owns two businesses and is enjoying a satisfying career and a life full of family time.
Mayhall would have graduated from Dublin High School in 1991, but he started a family in 1989 and left school to work full time. “I went to work for a guy who was doing refab for old gas station stuff,” he said. “It was a company out of Merkel, Texas, and they would take the [old gas pumps], redo them and set them above ground.”
When Mayhall turned 18, he went to work at the feed mill in Dublin, Ceres Grain. Mayhall started out unloading rail cars, and worked his way up to night supervisor. He stayed there ten years, but eventually Mayhall started looking for a job that would allow him to spend more time with his family. “We were working 12 hours a day, six days a week,” he said.
The next job he found was as a butcher at the meat market in Dublin. “It took a little bit, because I had to start at the bottom on the kill floor and work my way up,” he said.
Once he learned how to butcher, he continued working his way up until he became a manager. Mayhall enjoyed the work, especially in the summertime because it was always cool inside the meat market.
After ten years at the meat market, Mayhall decided to try something different, and took a job driving trucks. Now, he’s been in the trucking business for more than 15 years, and owns his own company, Mayhall Trucking. “We build roads and house pads and driveways, and then haul for the local dairies,” he said.
Running the business can be hectic. “Keeping trucks on the road, especially, doing the dairy work, we’re in those fields and a lot of stuff breaks,” he said. “I’m always fixing the trucks. And then finding work to keep my guys busy. It can be overwhelming sometimes.”
Mayhall recently started another business with his friend, the Two Cajun Cowboys restaurant in Dublin. “I’ve been cooking for my family get-togethers for years,” he said. “We always did a big Easter crawfish boil, and it just kept growing and growing. We talked about it for a couple years, about how to open a crawfish restaurant, and this building was sitting there, and so we went and looked at it and thought, ‘Well, we’ll try and see.’ And it worked really well.”
The restaurant is seasonal, open from around January to June during crawfish season. During their busy season this year, Mayhall and his friend were cooking 1000 pounds of crawfish a weekend. When it’s not open, people can rent the space as a venue.
Mayhall is already looking forward to crawfish season next year. “It’s a good time,” he said. “You have live music to listen to and it’s a family oriented thing. It’s a big venue with outside seating and inside.”
In coming years, Mayhall plans to continue dividing his time between his trucking business and the restaurant. “I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing now and see how this restaurant thing goes,” he said. “We’re maybe looking at maybe getting us a food truck, and so we can hit some venues and things.”
When he’s not working, Mayhall loves to travel. “I travel as much as I can,” he said. “The beach Port Aransas is my favorite place. I go down there at least three times a year, if I can, and then usually try to take a cruise or something.”
His next trip is to Ruidoso with his family. “That’ll be fun going with the family, the grandkids,” he said. “A lot of my free time is with my grandkids and my kids on the weekends, going to the lake or cooking or something. We’re always together.”
Mayhall has three grown children, Cory, 34, Shanae 31, and Dakota 26. He has s even young grandchildren.
Throughout his life, his children have been Mayhall’s greatest source of inspiration. “[I’ve loved] just watching them grow and develop into being great, great people,” he said. “They do really well on their own, and they’re always out to help people. I feel really great about how I raised my kids.”
From leaving high school early, to now being his own business owner, Mayhall has overcome many challenges to get where he is today. To future Dublin graduates, he offers the following advice: “Follow your dreams and work hard,” he said. “You can make them happen if you work at it.”
Where are they now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.