I’ve
written
about
personal
finance
and
investing
for
11
years,
which
means
I’ve
spent
just
about
the
same
amount
of
time
covering
legendary
investor
Warren
Buffett.
In
financial
journalism,
when
the
Oracle
of
Omaha
speaks,
everyone
listens
with
their
notepads
at
the
ready.
This
year,
I
listened
from
the
good
seats.
Along
with
tens
of
thousands
of
investors,
I
traveled
to
Omaha,
Nebraska,
in
early
May
to
attend
the
annual
shareholders
meeting
of
Berkshire
Hathaway,
the
company
Buffett
helms.
Before
the
highly
anticipated
Saturday
Q&A,
I
wanted
to
learn
more
about
Buffett’s
upbringing
and
lifestyle.
That’s
how
I
got
in
touch
with
David
Clark,
author
of
“Buffettology”
and
a
host
of
other
Berkshire-related
titles,
and
a
native
Nebraskan.
He
told
me
to
give
him
a
call
when
I
got
into
Omaha:
“I’ll
give
you
the
nickel
Warren
tour.”
Our
conversation
and
trip
around
town
revealed
not
only
the
appeal
of
coming
to
Omaha,
but
also
the
ways
in
which
Buffett,
93,
is
both
an
icon
and
a
product
of
his
hometown.
Billionaires
and
Cherry
Cokes
I
arrived
in
Omaha
on
Thursday,
May
2,
checked
into
my
hotel
and
headed
to
Happy
Hollow
Country
Club,
which
is
about
a
20-minute
drive
from
downtown
Omaha.
I
was
meeting
Clark
for
lunch.
He’s
a
club
member,
as
is
Buffett.
While
I
waited
for
him
at
the
clubhouse
bar,
I
interrupted
the
bartender’s
mid-afternoon
“Jeopardy!”
rerun
to
order
a
beer
and
ask
if
a
certain
billionaire
had
ever
occupied
this
same
stool.
“Yeah,
he
comes
in
here
all
the
time,”
she
told
me.
“What
does
he
drink?”
“Cherry
Cokes.”
“No
booze?”
“Never.
No
vegetables
either.”
Clark
arrived,
and
we
sat
down
and
chatted
over
sandwiches.
He
recalled
when
the
convention
center
that
holds
the
conference
shopping
day
used
to
house
4H
cattle
contests.
Now,
he
said,
the
meeting
had
become,
in
part,
a
clubhouse
for
the
mega
rich.
“There’s
your
multibillionaires.
There
are
your
guys
with
a
billion,
your
guys
with
$100
million,”
he
said.
“Then
it
all
goes
down
to
the
people
who
want
to
be
rich.”
The
whales
and
the
wannabes
come
to
Omaha
to
be
seen,
Clark
told
me
over
lunch,
but
also
to
get
a
peek
into
Buffett’s
world.
Reservations
at
Buffett’s
favorite
steakhouse,
Gorat’s,
are
practically
impossible
to
get
during
meeting
weekends.
A
money
manager
would
later
tell
me
that
he
and
a
friend
got
haircuts
at
Buffett’s
barbershop
one
year.
‘It’s
all
very
understated’
I
was
also
eager
to
see
what
all
the
fuss
was
about
when
I
hopped
in
Clark’s
Subaru.
He
was
a
uniquely
qualified
tour
guide:
Growing
up
in
Omaha,
the
Buffetts
were
family
friends,
their
son
Peter
a
buddy
and
classmate
of
Clark’s.
Clark’s
early
memories
of
Buffett
aren’t
as
a
titan
of
industry,
but
“just
someone’s
dad,”
he
says
—
the
kind
of
guy
who
impressed
the
neighbors
with
the
model
trainset
he
put
in
the
room
above
his
garage.
As
Clark
drove
me
around
the
neighborhood
where
he
grew
up,
a
theme
emerged.
Here
were
homes
of
prominent
Omaha
families
—
one-story
ranch
homes
belonging
to
doctors,
insurance
brokers,
restaurant
owners.
“They
were
early
Berkshire
investors,”
Clark
said.
“They’re
billionaires
now.”
Why
hadn’t
they
all
moved
into
Malibu
mansions?
Clark
told
me
that
some
of
them
had
second
homes,
but
that
a
lot
of
people,
regardless
of
wealth,
just
stayed
put.
“People
here
are
still
friends
with
the
people
they
went
to
high
school
with
50
years
ago,”
Clark
said.
“It’s
weird,
right?”
Actually,
it
feels
just
like
the
suburbs
I
grew
up
in,
and
suburbs
everywhere,
I
said.
Still,
something
did
feel
different
about
this
place.
As
we
passed
Nebraska
Furniture
Mart,
I
learned
that
the
Oracle
had
purchased
the
business
from
Rose
Blumkin
on
a
handshake
agreement.
Years
earlier,
Mrs.
B,
as
everyone
called
her,
had
cut
Clark
a
deal
on
a
rug
when
he
planned
to
move
to
an
apartment
in
San
Francisco,
the
author
told
me.
Why
the
generosity?
he
asked.
“You’ll
get
bored
and
come
back
here,”
Clark
remembers
Mrs.
B
telling
him.
And
indeed
he
did,
becoming
a
customer
loyalist
who
used
the
store
to
furnish
practically
every
room
in
his
home.
We
passed
National
Indemnity
—
one
of
Berkshire’s
flagship
insurance
companies
—
which
I
was
told
has
looked
the
same
for
decades.
“Same
building,
same
sign,”
Clark
said.
Next,
we
drove
by
Buffett’s
former
elementary
school,
which
had
been
renovated.
Rumor
has
it
that
virtually
every
school
in
Omaha
has
received
generous
grants
for
renovation
from
the
famous
investor.
For
all
of
Buffett’s
wealth
and
extraordinary
qualities,
Clark
described
him
as
a
typical
son
of
Omaha
who
followed
the
local
blueprint:
Grow
up,
stay
put,
do
good
business,
get
rich
and
then
keep
it
to
yourself.
“You
saw
at
the
country
club,
there
are
no
Audis
or
anything
in
the
parking
lot,”
Clark
pointed
out.
“It’s
all
very
understated.
That’s
how
everyone
likes
it.”
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