I had to go to Louisville a few days ago and on the return trip, I got a little "edgy" on trying to make it back to Central City on the remaining gas in my tank so I stopped in Leitchfield to fill up and to avail myself of their rest room. It was a self service "convenience store" (whatever that means) and had a pump where you paid outside. Since I had to go inside, I opted to pay in there. I went to the rest room and decided since I had "emptied" my bladder, it was serving no purpose and needed to be refilled.
I went to the cooler and picked up a can of diet "Seven-Up." When I approached the counter, I was about third or fourth in line. The clerk barely spoke English and spoke NO audible english. Most of the people in line in front of me were purchasing cigarettes and lottery tickets. Since this was on a Wednesday and Kentucky Lottery draws their "big" draw for the week on that night, each of these people were not only purchasing their "daily fix" of instant "scratch offs," they were also purchasing their card (or cards) for that night's draw.
The lady behind the counter seemed more interested in helping them select winners, and since these folks were apparently "regulars" and I was a stranger, she wasn't in any hurry to get to me. These people stood at the counter (one at a time) while they scratched their "instants," and filled out their Lottery Drawing cards. I guess I should have gotten upset but I didn't. Instead I went into a "daydream stooper" remembering what purchasing gas was like years ago.
My Dad only traded at three gas stations regularly in my lifetime (and his). They were Gus Benton's, Randall "Doc" Carr's and Darrel Raley's. He stayed with each one of them until they went out of business (due to retirement) before he moved on to another one. It was called Customer Loyalty and it's something that is very rare these days. No one ever gave these astute business men their loyalty...each had to earn it and earn it they did.
Gus Benton always seemed like he was an old man to me. He was probably in his forties when I was a child but my memory of him has him looking like someone seventy years old. He looked the part. It's always been funny to me how a person had to "look" like their occupation and no matter where they went, you knew what they did for a living. An airline pilot, for example, has to LOOK like an airline pilot. All pilots need to look like "Sully" Sullenberger, the now famous pilot who bravely landed his plane in the Hudson River saving the lives of himself and all of his passengers. I have a good friend, Ron McRoy who does this for a living and he looks the part. I remember a few years ago, Southwest Airlines (that's who Ron flies for) had a promotion where they flew passengers to some tropical location (the Bahamas maybe?) and they had their flight crews, including the pilots, dress up in Hawaain shirts and shorts, complete with "leighs" around their necks. The pilots all looked like Jimmy Buffett and it made us passengers feel a little uneasy at first when we saw them entering the cockpit. They just didn't "look" the part. Ol' Gus did!
Gus had a service station at the corner of Reservoir Ave. and North Second Street. Years later, after Gus had retired, the State purchased his old gas station, tore it down and widened the intersection where it once stood. This happened when they also took out the infamous "dog leg," which ironically took out "Doc" Carr's service station.
Gus's Service Station (which was actually called "Benton's Service Station) was a sight to behold. It was an old block building, probably 20 x 20 with a single rest room that you could only enter from the outside, a store room where he kept motor oil, wipers and batteries, etc. In the front were a pair of old gasoline pumps, "Regular" and "Ethyl." The roof of the building extended out over the pumps for shade and protection from the rain. His grease rack was outside, to the right of the sales office. His sales office was probably about 8' x 8' and had a glass counter that stored candy bars and stuff, a register on top of it and a Coke machine in the corner. There was an old metal chair in the other corner. Gus would sit in it between customers but when one arrived, they would sometimes take the chair and Gus would sit on a stool behind the counter. I never remember seeing a woman inside Gus's sales office. It wasn't that they weren't allowed or even welcome...it's just that it wasn't considered proper for a woman to be seen in such a setting. To my knowledge, my Mom never purchased gas there as that was the job for the "man of the house." Dad would take care of it every Saturday morning.
He would load my brother and me up in our '53 Studebaker Champion and head to Gus's. Gus operated a Standard Oil gasoline station and he wore a Standard Oil uniform complete with pinstriped shirt (Standard Oil logo over one pocket and his name embroidered over the other) and a "captain's" hat with the patent leather bill and Standard Oil logo. He opted to not wear the little bow tie that the "high-brow" gasoline stations required of their attendants. There was no bell that rang to let him know there was a customer outside. He had to constantly be watching for them. When one pulled up, he jumped to his feet, grabbed the proper hose (regular or ethyl) and inserted it into the tank. Car manufacturers then made it a practice of "hiding" their gas tanks ('57 Chevys were hidden in the taillight trim) and a professional attendant had to know where all of these were. Some were behind a "flip down" license plate.
The pump handles didn't have "widgets" that kept them pumping while the attendant did other things. He had to stand there and constantly squeeze on it, even in extreme weather. Once the tank was "topped off," he would raise the hood, pull a red rag from his rear pants pocket, remove the dipstick and check your oil. He never asked if you wanted this done, he just did it. If you didn't want it, it was your duty to tell him. If it needed oil, he would show you the stick and ask if you wanted any. He then checked your radiator to be sure it was full (and if it was in the late fall to insure it had anti-freeze). Finally he would get a clean rag and spray water on your windshield and rub it until it was spotless and shiny. You have to remember that operational windshield washers mounted on the car didn't come along for many more years and bugs that were "dried" onto the windshield for about a week were very hard to remove. When it came time to pay, you always did so at the pump (especially if you were a female). He would take your money inside, "hand write" a receipt and bring your change back out to you. He would always Thank you for your business and invite you back.
I always think of Gus Benton's place whenever I watch an old Andy Griffith rerun where Gomer worked at the service station. That station was very similiar to Gus's and the activity that surrounded it was also similiar. As I said, Dad would take us with him every Saturday morning. He and Gus always had something in common to talk about for several minutes (don't ask what it was...it was "grown-up" stuff and I never understood what it was). While Gus was servicing the car, we'd all go into the sales office. Dad would get out a nickel for each of us and we'd go to the pop machine. Gus had one of those old horizontal machines where the door opened from the top exposing rows of drinks arranged by flavor. Cokes had their own row, followed by drinks like Orange Crush, Dr. Pepper, Nehi Grape, Root Beer and those wonderful chocolate drinks that came in a pop bottle. That's what we always selected. Gus's machine had the "coldest" drinks in town, sometimes even having an "icy" texture to them. I suppose my taste buds have changed over the years but I still can't remember any drink as refreshing as those from Gus's machine. After my brother and I got our drinks, Dad and Gus would then get themselves a Coke and would bet some token amount on whose bottle came from the furthest distance (a game I played many years later with my old buddy Walter Creager). Gus had a couple of those glass globe machines that sold colored chewing gum balls for a penny and he always gave the two of us a penny to purchase these before we left. We'd bid him good bye and go back out to the house to pick up Mom for Saturday shopping at Dennis Market. Bub and I would end up at the State Theater for their matinee and Dad would drift down to Wallace Hardware and buy stuff he needed (or didn't). It was sure simpler times back then.
Gus finally got older and retired. I don't remember anyone else ever re-opening his service station for that purpose but a few different business located there in the ensuing years. Dad then took his regular business over to "Doc" Carr's station over by the "dog-leg" on Second street, about a block from where Gus operated. Doc's station was modern by the standards of the day complete with an "indoor" grease rack and wash bay. Car washes in those service stations were becoming the "sign of the times," much like the addition of supermarkets. Doc even had a wrecker. He sold tires and had a machine on site to remove the old ones and replace them with new ones. His brand was Texaco and like Gus, he dressed the part. So did all of his full time attendants. When the "dog-leg" was "straightened" years later, Doc moved his operation to the "Y," where he stayed until he retired many years later. Dad stayed with him and when he retired, Dad went to the ultra-modern station Darrell Raley built out by the Parkway. He then traded there until he (Dad) died. Dad drove for about 50 of his 77 years and only traded regularly at three service stations. Talk about Customer Loyalty.
As I grew up and started driving my own cars, I began doing business with Charlie Humphrey and Ed Gish. It began as a Texaco station located on one corner of 2nd & Broad Streets but years later they moved to the other corner and became a Phillips 66. They also had all of the services that Doc had except they had TWO (later three) wreckers. Both of these gentlemen (and that's what they were) cultivated and tended their business and worked sixteen hour days six days a week (they were closed on Sundays). They also had a large base of "customer loyalty." Their place wasn't only a place to do business, it was a place to stop by for a chat. I can remember lots of times when a snow would come and they'd get busy with their wreckers, sometime for a 24 hr. stretch, Phillip Sparks and myself, who both worked at First National Bank would go up there and help "Bernie" pump gas, patch tires, install chains and stuff like that. We didn't do it for the pay (I don't even remember any pay being discussed), we did it because we enjoyed doing it...and it was totally different from what we did on a daily basis. I traded with them until they finally retired and then I moved out to Raley's and stayed with Darrell until he died and stayed with his sons Kenny and Larry until they closed. They were the last of the "service" stations that washed your windshield and checked your oil.
I miss those old stations. Some of them (and I'll probably leave out a few) besides the ones I mentioned were Field's Phillips 66, Connie Lile's DX, Ishmal Underwood's DX (later Sunoco), McRoy's Gulf, Markwell's Gulf, McDowell's, Jr. Dennis's, Shemwell's Marathon, and countless country grocery stores that had pumps out front where the "wife" ran the inside and the "husband" ran the outside. Hargis Harvey operated a station like these in Greenville well into the nineties.
I finally arrived at the counter of the convenience store in Leitchfield, gave the lady my credit card for the gas and Seven-Up, signed the receipt and went on my way. I don't believe she even said "Thank You," and if she did, I didn't understand it. She was dressed in "layers of garb" and was talking on a cell phone to someone while she rang up my transaction. It wasn't her fault. It's how she was "taught" the trade. She didn't have any real competition as most of her customers who purchased the goods I purchased were "strangers." Her only regulars purchased $5.00 worth of gas (about two gallons), two or three packs of cigarettes and probably $25.00 worth of various Lottery Cards.
I just wish I could have had the opportunity to take my boys to a place like Gus's when they were small. Unfortunately by the time they came along, most of these places were just memories. They did get to experience a little of it while Raley's was open but they were usually so busy with "toll road" traffic, there wasn't much time to gossip.
Another part of "Americana" gone but not forgotten.
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