Old time teaching station

Just reading an article in a car mag and it stuck me how true it was. When I was 15 I had a job at a two bay Kendall gas station right near my house. I worker after school till 8 pm five days a week and 6 hrs. on Saturday. It was owned by a father and son, the son in his mid 20's doing the bulk of the mechanical work. He could do anything and took on any job the stations equipment could handle. I pumped gas and luckily helped the son whenever I had the chance to. I learned so much working with him in the two years I worked there. We did brake work, clutches, suspension, engine, even some exhaust work. I went to a vocational school for auto mechanics, and the last two years shop was a breeze because of all the things I learned from working with this "gas station mechanic" and his father, who were great at their jobs and patient with me.
The article said correctly that the opportunities for young kids to learn like this is gone, as this type of gas station no longer exist. I'm afraid they have lost a great chance to learn at the feet of some really talented mechanics, also dealing with costumers ( face to face ) at the gas pump. I'm sure so many of us have similar stories and wish this current generation had these opportunities. I didn't stay in the mechanical field to make a living as other things came about. Although, fifty years later I remember their names and wish I could thank them, but their gone. While I didn't make a living at it, what I learned helped me enjoy my hobby all my life. Thanks AJ and Pop

This reminds me of Farlow's Tire and gas station near my home in Sophia, NC (1 stop light). The elderly father does all the delivery of home fuel oil and occasionally manages the conversation at the 2 booths inside. Alton, the son does tire work on everything from Toyotas to skid steers and tractors. His nephew has been around for the last few months doing odd jobs and washing his 4wd pickup about every other day.

I stopped by on Friday and asked if Alton would put some tubes in 2 John Deere lawnmower tires. He said fine, glanced down and saw the Slime oozing out and smiled. He said See you on Monday because the warehouse would not deliver tubes on Saturdays. The young man was there struggling with the tubes (because small tires suck) when I showed up on Monday. He was quite comical when he got the tube in, the valve stem pulled through, and when he hit the air pressure from the 1940s Arco tire machine the Slime flew out and he looked pricelessly surprised. Alton for me the price, I paid him, and the young man proceeded to the washroom.

Hopefully the young man will continue his transition to manhood with continued success.

I was working in northeast Oklahoma a few weeks ago. They have an old school service station in the town next to where I was working. Pulled up and a high school aged kid came up and pumped fuel into my work truck! Pretty cool to see, I wouldn’t mind paying a couple cents more a gallon for the service. And it’s better than kids having to work fast food and such.

That's how I started also around 13 or so at 18 I was in the shop doing whatever was needed and always had a mentor! Was fun looking back.

44070dart said:

Just reading an article in a car mag and it stuck me how true it was. When I was 15 I had a job at a two bay Kendall gas station right near my house. I worker after school till 8 pm five days a week and 6 hrs. on Saturday. It was owned by a father and son, the son in his mid 20's doing the bulk of the mechanical work. He could do anything and took on any job the stations equipment could handle. I pumped gas and luckily helped the son whenever I had the chance to. I learned so much working with him in the two years I worked there. We did brake work, clutches, suspension, engine, even some exhaust work. I went to a vocational school for auto mechanics, and the last two years shop was a breeze because of all the things I learned from working with this "gas station mechanic" and his father, who were great at their jobs and patient with me.
The article said correctly that the opportunities for young kids to learn like this is gone, as this type of gas station no longer exist. I'm afraid they have lost a great chance to learn at the feet of some really talented mechanics, also dealing with costumers ( face to face ) at the gas pump. I'm sure so many of us have similar stories and wish this current generation had these opportunities. I didn't stay in the mechanical field to make a living as other things came about. Although, fifty years later I remember their names and wish I could thank them, but their gone. While I didn't make a living at it, what I learned helped me enjoy my hobby all my life. Thanks AJ and Pop

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This is so true. I've said to my wife many times how its sad this is mostly a lost opportunity for kids. I came up through the ranks at our local Exxon, from pumping gas in high school, to head mechanic. I left after 10 years for different opportunity's but the responsibility's and lessons I learned on that job are still with me today.

The desert summer nights with the Ranchero in the lube bay and the 8 track blasting Aerosmith. The freezing cold desert winter nights when the squeegee froze on the windshields. The footprints on the lady's room toilets to scrub off. What fun.

Dad had a gas station/shop I worked at. Nana was in the same building running the restaurant/dinner. It was awesome, many memories and values/traits learned there.
Cellophane calendars with flip up boobs lol. I "worked" their summers and weekends, got paid in onion rings and strawberry milkshakes.
Both are gone now and miss em like fack
Great point you have made.
Where do you see a service station with gas pumps anymore??

Unconventional said:

The desert summer nights with the Ranchero in the lube bay and the 8 track blasting Aerosmith. The freezing cold desert winter nights when the squeegee froze on the windshields. The footprints on the lady's room toilets to scrub off. What fun.

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If that is all you got out of it ..it must suck to be you

I'll make this shorter than it was.
I was the main/only mechanic for a used car lot in my early 20's and at that point had a good ten plus years of experience behind me with my Dad.
I got hurt pretty bad to the point I couldn't hardly move let alone work, and we had a "lot boy" who washed the cars.
My boss agreed to keep me on the clock if I would teach this younger guy how to do the work I did normally.
This went on for a couple of months while he learned how to do just about everything with engines, transmissions and all the other drivetrain related jobs.
About 15 years later this guy shows up unannounced with a Wife and son and tells me how he has this great job at a dealership as Head Mechanic, and sincerely thanks me multiple times for doing what I did with him as he would have had pretty much zero skills for the job market otherwise.

I did tell him the main reason I did it was to keep getting a paycheck while I was hurt and recovering, but he said he knew it wasn't just that because I spent so much time on details with him.
He was a good kid with a fantastic attitude and he learned fast.

20 years later an Internet service owner/programmer for BofA did the same with me, and that's how I ended up going from doing mechanical work to owning a computer service and repair business and more than tripling my income at 45 years old.
I started at this place making 7 an hour for 2 hours a week cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming the floors and knew squat about computers, but it was the only job I could get that had to do with them.
I ended up staying 8 hours a day helping with customer service and watching everything that guy (Mickey) did with computers.
Within 2 months he hired me full time and after being there for a couple of years I opened our computer service business.

I thank him now for doing the same as I did for the kid at the car lot.

I never was actually employed at a gas station but hung around at several starting when I was about 15 up into my mid 20s, which was '66 to '77. Learned a bit just from watching and asking questions, even pitched in with a helping hand now and then.

In my mid 20s I landed a job in the engineering test lab of an automotive parts manufacturer. I had some basic mechanical and fabrication skills otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the job.

The first few years I picked up knowledge about machining, welding and sheet metal work from the older guys who were willing to share their experience with me, just by doing the same thing I had before, watching and asking questions. Some were very open to me about doing that and some weren't. I think the ones that shared liked that I was interested in what they had done and learned over the years.

I held that job for 35 years, so eventually I became the older guy sharing his knowledge with the younger guys who wanted to learn how to do stuff, and it was enjoyable to me to share, just as people had done for me so many years ago.

Teaching is a legacy that you build over time. Reality is that there just aren’t that many small shops around to teach anymore, so it’s up to folks like us to spot the younger folks that have an interest and teach them ourselves.

It’s a dying skill to work on these old cars and if we don’t teach...nobody will.

Wally's Filling Station in Mayberry. Gomer and Goober.

Yeah, its a shame these kind if opportunities for young folks to learn hands-on skills are fading.

I started hanging around a two bay ARCO station when I was 15 years old, helping the guy pump gas after the owner went home for the day.

One evening this car comes driving from around back through the grass while I was pumping gas into a car...the owner!!!

I just knew the guy working and I were both going to get yelled at. To my surprise he asked me if I wanted a job!!

So, I went after school and pumped gas and helped him with the shop work. In fact, just after I got my first car, a 72 Duster, I ripped out the spider gears in the parking lot. Then he schooled me on replacing spider gears!!!

Today, I'm afraid there is so much concern about money, money, money...and lawsuits that shops are reluctant to help.

66fyssh said:

One evening this car comes driving from around back through the grass while I was pumping gas into a car...the owner!!!

I just knew the guy working and I were both going to get yelled at.

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My Father used to take me to work with him. He worked for a very prosperous construction company that at the time was building a LOT of Interstates in SoCal. On an I 40 section in lovely Needles Ca. he tells me " If you see a red and white Cessna flying low over the area, HIDE. That could be Mr. Yeager's plane." I'm pretty sure Mr. Yeager knew there was a 15 yr old running his equipment at times . It must have worked, the next contractor he worked for told Dad "Get the boy in the apprenticeship program and we'll put him to work." That superintendent was in Needles with my Dad