WHICH STATE IS THE ODD STATE OUT - AND CHEERS BAR

 WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2023 - WHICH STATE IS THE ODD STATE OUT?

It’s New Jersey - the last holdout.  Recently the second-to-last holdout caved in.  Is it freedom?  Is it irresponsible?  Is it dangerous?  (If so, why is it dangerous in New Jersey and not the other 49 states?)

So, what is the topic?  Gas stations!!

The Oregon legislature recently approved allowing people to pump their own gas - leaving New Jersey as the only state where you have a gas station attendant pumping your gas.

I don’t remember how long but I was able to pump my own gas when I got my own car.  I’ll admit that it was better on some of the freezing cold days in the upper midwest to stay in the warm and toasty car and let some attendance have to stand on the concrete pavement with a parka, three layers of long underwear, a ski mask and Eskimo gloves pump your gas.  Or the parallel from Texas and Arizona - when it is 110 degrees out, to stay in your air-conditioned car and let an attendant in Bermuda shorts and a tank top pump your gas.  

I guess I didn’t pay much attention the first time I stopped for gas in New Jersey and I started to grab the hose and a man yelled at me “You can’t do that.”  I learned that as I pulled into a gas station in New Jersey (on our every summer trip back to the midwest for living in Connecticut), I had to let some person pump my gas for me.  

I’ll admit those long trips between Connecticut and Nebraska - or Connecticut and Texas were long and I wanted to get my gas and get on the road again.  (Warning - when I’m in a hurry, don’t get in my way).  Some stations had only one attendant and that person had to start, stop the gas pumping, take your credit card, and do all the legwork.  If that attendant was busy at another pump, I’d be waiting!!! And, I’d be sitting fuming in my car - “LET’S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD”.

The reasons are still about the same, it could be dangerous.  I’ve never seen a gas station fire (and hope never to see one - except maybe on a television show).  

*****

Back to the days of yore again.

Growing up in Iowa (and this was true of all the states back there), all service stations were big on SERVICE.  You pulled up to the pump, an attendant came to your vehicle and asked you about what grade of gas you wanted (regular or premium), and after starting the pump, could clean your windshield (for free).  The attendance would ask if you wanted your oil checked (again a free service).  They might also check your tires for air. All free.  SERVICE

My parents always went to John and Ed’s Phillip’s 66 Service Station on Second Avenue West - at Sixth Street.  They wouldn’t dare go anyplace else.  It might be John, or it might be Ed who pumped your gas and exchanged small talk.  My father would always fill the tank up, and my mother would put in a limited amount (maybe a couple of dollars).  Gas was about 30 cents a gallon - so you could probably fill your tank for three dollars.  (And, get your windshield cleaned, and your oil and air checked).  My sister was more like my father - she got the tank filled up, but she charged it.  No, we didn’t have a credit card and we didn’t have a gas card - but John and Ed knew my folks and would write it down and the next time my dad got gas, he’d play off the bill.  Going to John and Ed's was like going to a friend's house - or like the slogan for Cheers Bar - “Where everybody knows your name”.  They knew our name - we were regulars.

Now I go to a station with sixteen pumps.  I pay at the pump, and I rarely have to wait for a pump to get open (other than between 5 and 8 pm when all the Amazon drivers are filling up).  I rarely go inside, (although they want everybody to come inside and get a coffee, soda, taco, pizza, hot dogs that have rolled on a roller/heater for hours on end, and snacks).  I’m in and out quickly.

But, when I go inside - unlike Cheers Bar - NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME.  I don’t get my windshield washed, I don’t get my oil checked, I don’t get the air in my tires checked - and they don’t know me (or as my mother might say, “They don’t know you from Adam”.  I assume she meant Adam from the Adam and Eve Biblical story). 

NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME - NOBODY CARES - unless my credit card is denied!!  

Is pumping your own gas dangerous?  Not really - but it sure did help the ego to have the owner/manager of the family gas station - John and Ed’s Phillips 66 station call you by name.  Yup, I’m just a person with a credit card.  I am anonymous - just a blip on the computer screen that says 5316-1111-1111-1111 paid their bill.

*****

Hey - that sounds like my whole life anymore - I am anonymous - nobody knows my name, and nobody cares about me - other than my circle of friends.  How about you?  Do you care about people?  Does “everybody knows your name”? 

I’m lucky, everybody in my bridge group knows my name, everyone on my granny basketball team knows my name, most everybody at my little church knows my name, some of the people in the orchestra know my name - but not all, and I don’t know all their names (that’s easily excused - after all they are “only” string players - if they were brass or even most of the woodwinds, I’d know their name).  

Maybe I need to go back to Madison South Dakota - and work on knowing everybody's name and getting them to know my name.

(But, I have a friend that always knows my name - God knows my name - and knows me much better than I know myself)!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, JULY 12, 2023

(Maybe that’s why I liked Dakota State and Quinnipiac so much more than the University of Texas - a lot of people knew my name - and I knew their name).