In the days before skyrocketing oil prices made consumers decide to pump their own gasoline, gas stations were known as service stations. You could pull into a service station, roll your window down, and ask the owner or his teenage surrogate to "Fill 'er up." While he was filling your tank, he would clean your windshield, offer to check under your hood, and check the pressure in your tires. When he brought you your credit card receipt to sign, he might also bring you some green stamps.
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Cecil Waters owned just such a service station on Gloster, across from Milam. Junior High students liked to hang out there after school, waiting for their rides. I don't see how Cecil was able to conduct much real business between 3:00 and 3:30 during the school year, but he certainly sold a lot of Cokes and candy.
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The picture above is not Cecil Waters' station, but it reminds me of it. The picture came from a road map of the type that service stations once gave away. Imagine that.
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Now we pump our own gas at convenience stores and, if we swipe our credit card at the pump, we can complete the entire transaction without any human contact.
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(Jim Bain has a drug store on the site where Cecil Waters' station once was.)
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ReplyDeleteIt wasnt just AFTER school that Cecil's saw Milam students. We had a history class that for some bizarre reason was scheduled part before and part after lunch. It met in the basement. It was not at all unusual for one or more of us to make a snack run -- and have our own lunch there in the classroom.
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