The old Gas Station … was a refuge for some

[hmskl’dParticipant 6406]

When I was young, decades ago .. about age 13, I had a daily paper route delivering evenings on weekdays plus Saturday and mornings on Sunday. I had about 100 customers and I remember one stop on my route was an old full-service gas station.
This place had the rubber hose in front that rang a bell when driven over. It also had one service bay for simple things like oil changes and tires. I remember on the pump hose it had what was called a “final filter” so you can about guess which brand it was.

Attached to this old service station was a concrete room where they sold electronics .. things like early color televisions, stereo record players and table radios. In the corner of that room was a glass case with the old cash register on top and a rack of potato chip bags for sale. In that case they had some candy bars .. and windshield wiper blades for sale. Next to the cash register was a wooden box for returning empty glass soda bottles.

Connecting the service bay and that sales room was a short hallway with a Soda “pop” machine selling Coke, Sundrop and Hires Root Beer all in the glass bottles for a quarter. There was also a restroom for everyone .. the old metal sign on the door just said restroom. Inside was a single faucet sink stained with rust, a paper towel dispenser .. and a hole in the plaster wall containing magazines and reading material.

The reason for this posting is because I remember, on cold winter evenings, when delivering the paper to the owner who sat leaning back in an old office chair .. I remember that guy plus the other regulars, about five or six guys in their twenty’s and thirties who would sit and watch TV in the display room. The owner had a truckers wallet with a chain and and many keys on a keyring .. also on a chain.

The other guys would sit on old metal stools, 55 gallon drums turned on their ends .. or some old wooden chair they’d found somewhere. I knew, basically, all of them, some were my customers .. when you deliver daily news papers in a very small town you eventually recognize almost everyone you see. Several, were on the fire department.

They’d all be watching NBC sitcoms or ABC sports .. which were two of the only channels we could get back then .. I remember seeing that NBC peac~~~ logo on that 25″ console TV that they watched .. it had the price sticker hanging on the knob so it was for sale .. every item stacked in that room was basically for sale. On top of the TV were other new electronic items .. all for sale.

I always wondered why these guys would quietly sit for a time in that old gas station almost each evening, it wasn’t the most comfortable place .. the heater was something connected to exposed pipes hanging from the ceiling over in the corner next to the wall covered with fan belts, oil filters and auto parts .. that faint smell of waste oil and rubber tires.

Back then, it was just something I wondered as I stood there warming up for a couple of minutes durning my paper route. As they sat on an old wooden box or stool eating potato chips and drinking a soda from a glass bottle .. usually the same five or six .. sometimes less .. sometimes more.
As I think back now on this old days .. that old gas station with the solvent smell and the dirty rust stained bathroom sink .. I remember those guys sometimes laughing and enjoying the show, no one said much .. the TV set spoke .. in that simple old sales room .. tires or old wheel rims pushed back in the corner.

I know exactly why they were there, why they stopped there, after their workday .. decades ago. This was their escape .. they probably needed this place for a time each day to help keep their sanity. This old gas station, sitting on old bent stools and boxes .. where no one judged anyone, no one demanded anything, and no one made issues about anything .. this sales room where they watched a simple old TV show in silence .. with the price stickers still dangling on the knobs of the sets for sale .. stealing a moment of time, this was their refuge from that noisy world that they faced .. at home, at work … everywhere.

[HermitParticipant]

Good story. Takes me back in time. I grew up way out in the country and the nearest town was about 5 miles away and you could barely call it a town as small as it was, but it did have an old gas station, but much smaller than the one you described. We’d ride our motorcycles there and eat candy bars and drink soda pop. Then we’d ride off to the river and hangout and swim.

However, there were old guys always hanging out at that old gas station, probably for the same reason you describe. It’s funny how dirty little places like that repel women and attract men…….old barns and dirty little sheds have always been wonderful refuges for boys and men.

The evil in women’s hearts leaves them no moral bounds as to inhibit them from descending to the lowest levels of darkness to acquire their self entitled desires.

[Gravel PitParticipant]

hmskl’d wrote:

daily paper route

Now all Newspapers are liberal rags, 10x more expensive and the print-factory is going bankrupt.

hmskl’d wrote:

they sold electronics .. things like early color televisions, stereo record players and table radios.

Now the gas station sells USB cords (matrix umbilical cords)

hmskl’d wrote:

.. the old metal sign on the door just said restroom.

now there’s a tranny on meth waiting for you inside

hmskl’d wrote:

wondered why these guys would sit for hours in that old… cold gas station .

back before mass-device-hypnosis, men still congregated in public to rib and backslap eachother

hmskl’d wrote:

in that simple old concrete TV sales room

Now there are millions of empty square-feet, vacant industrial/retail spaces worth billions, ghostly strip malls and deserted parking lots. Replaced by e-commerce and a deafening silence, a palpable sadness because the internet not only killed brick-n-mortar but it killed dating & all relationships. People cant even look up anymore to find that the light turned green, much less walk down a sidewalk and meet people the natural way.

hmskl’d wrote:

was their refuge from the world

there isnt a world anymore, just an umbilical cord to 100101010s, that is who you are now, 11010100101010s

[hmskl’dParticipant 6406]

I still remember this, even though decades ago, when my Grandfather had a heart attack one morning, way back then when I was young ..
my Mother knew to call that same gas station owner guy who was also on fire department .. and he arrived quickly at the house with a suitcase looking box

… inside he had Oxygen bottles and a Mask and he stayed with my Grandfather helping him breathe until others arrived .. and my Grandpa did recover from that heart attack.

[Gravel PitParticipant]

This is why I say, there is a tradition/legacy that is being obliterated. Every time they kill something like Boy Scouts of America. Every time they make another advert promoting single-motherhood. Every time she wont let that boy run barefoot with his friends in those undeveloped fields during the Summer.

Every time they edit a history book, tear down a 100 year old statue and create social-sciences electives in college that are straight up political dogma meant to indoctrinate instead of educate.

We aren’t growing Men anymore…. the whole country is just s safe-space for women. Boys and Men are just dogs now, meant to lick clean the bloody vaginas of their masters.

Why did beards come back? It’s an earthy unhygienic and repulsive thing to wear a beard. No man born in the middle ages would have denied the modern luxury of hot water and a razor.

Beards came back in style because 1. Women want them, and women get what they want. 2. Men feel like a beard salvages their manhood which has been eroded to something like a commercial break dependent on women’s caprice.

I will not become a Ken Doll for women. I will not be a cog in gynocracy’s wheel. I have gone my own way.

[WPLParticipant 2390]

I used to work with a guy (mechanical engineer) who’d been employed as an attendant/mechanic’s helper/chore boy as a teenager at a gas station like that (1960s era). He’d often tell us it was his favorite of all the jobs he’d ever held (and he’d done a lot).

[HermitParticipant]

I’ve always loved the smell of those old gas stations. Also loved the smell of the old feed store we used to go to when I was a kid. It had a peanut machine. It was like a gumball machine, but when you put in a coin and turned the handle, you got a handful of peanuts and because they’d drop out the bottom, you always got a lot of salt. Man, that was a lifetime ago. I love nostalgia.

The evil in women’s hearts leaves them no moral bounds as to inhibit them from descending to the lowest levels of darkness to acquire their self entitled desires.

[MonkParticipant 16988]

hmskl’d wrote:

I know exactly why they were there, why they stopped there .. decades ago. This was their escape .. they probably needed this place for a time each day to help keep their sanity.

Here in the UK, local authorities are legally required to provide small (usually something like 30′ x 30′) plots of land (‘allotments’) for local taxpayers to cultivate.

Many are only dug once a year and maybe planted with something basic, (which may or may not even be used), just to keep the entitlement. Most allotments have a shed. Many feature an old armchair and a pile of magazines.

You often see men just sitting there in the sun, enjoying the peace and quiet.

[Daryll55Participant 2950]

Back in the 70’s, archealogists found a deep cave high in the rocky mountains in the state of Utah. In the center of the cave was a large room with what appeared to be a campfire in the center of the room. Near it were traces of some kind of rolled up plant material along with many bowls and broken cups. The walls were littered with graffitti showing the slayings of huge beasts. Noteably, there was nothing to indicate a feminine presence.
They dug further and found another room with a pinball machine and a pool table….

Archealogists figure it to be the first known MANCAVE.

Marry again, Hell NO ! ( Even JESUS was hung on a cross just once)

[hmskl’dParticipant 6406]

Daryll55 wrote:

a pinball machine and a pool table….

If they searched around deeper .. they’d probably find a quiet little Honda inverter generator used for that PB machine and swag lamp above pool table .. and, even if it’s from 70’s .. it might just still run.

[AwakenedParticipant 35201]

hmskl’d wrote:

I always wondered why these guys would quietly sit for a time in that old gas station almost each evening, it wasn’t the most comfortable place ..

That Ole Gas station was probably more “comfortable” and welcoming then their “family” living room.

In a World of Justin Beibers Be a Johnny Cash

[SpleeferParticipant 958]

The local hardware store was the hang out place for men in my town. That store sold NAPA auto parts as well. One stop shop. No women ever went inside! Nowadays a lot of men are dragged to Home Depot by their wife. To replace a countertop just for a color change. Or Sally got slate, so we need slate. Those places are old Nip joints. You could get a swig for the road. There are still places like that left. Support them when you can.

Galatians 5:1 (KJV) Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

[Dark Ninja DaveParticipant 273]

Here in Australia, there is the concept of a “Men’s Shed”: places for semi-retired and retired men (who may be increasingly isolated once giving up work) to get together, share and acquire knowledge about practical things, with a focus on health and well-being.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_shed

Sadly, it seems like this too is going the way of “being more inclusive”, as the above link suggests.
A shame, as I was looking forward to getting involved in this movement myself in a few years from now.

There needs to be recognition that men have their own unique set of interests and problems.

[Author]

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