Wednesday, August 21, 2013

OPW


I had a pretty good arm growing up. I  would bet you today, if I was standing in the middle of the square at the center of Morrills Corner, I could grip a baseball in my hands and heave it six different times, and I'd land it near the pumps of the six filling stations at the corner. Six, count them Six! There was an Esso, an Amaco, a Shell, a Sunoco, a Flying A, and a Cheveron. They were all there within sight, within hitting distance of at least the pumps. How many do you think are left today of the six? Marchin, my brother, knows the answer. Now, if you guessed ZERO, you would be quite the guesser. 
Heck, you might even venture down to Old Orchard Beach and take over the booth of Dave the Guesser.
The corner has changed quite a bit, from when it was my old stompin' ground. As  a matter of fact, there are only two buildings that have kept their same use for over 50 years. Wanna try again?
I'll tell ya, if you said it was a bar and a restaurant, you'd be correct again. Back then, the bar was The Brass Rail. It's now the Morrills Corner Pub. I worked at Edna's Restaurant, which now goes by the name of Samuel's Bar and Grill. Wow! Over fifty years and just two establishments still standing as is. Amazing!
And by the way, growing up I pleaded and begged 'the powers that be' for a McDonald's nearby. No way. At the time, there was only one set of Golden Arches in town. Now? You are right again, Swami! A good size set of arches moved into the neighborhood and took over one of those gas stations many years ago.
Just my luck. 
Thirty-five years too late for me!

* By the way, these two, colored caps were found on the cement lot of a once thriving full-service station in New Jersey.

13 comments:

  1. Times change. Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's not so good. But even if the Brass Rail still existed in its original form it wouldn't be the same, 'cause I have a feeling you've changed a little bit, too, in the last 100 years! :)

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    1. Lowell- You're talking like YOU got hit over the head by a brass rail. hahahahaha

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  2. The old full service stations with the guys in uniforms and the maps and the restaurant keys. They could work on your car a little bit also. There is one such station here in Tulsa still. Of course I never go there because it costs too much but I'm glad that other people do.

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  3. kind of sad to see old places disappear.

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  4. Your observation got me thinking about my "downtown" business area 50 years back . . . boy has it changed a lot. There used to be 5 drug stores; now there is one 24-hour CVS. Either we're a healthier bunch or CVS is way more efficient. The times, they are a changing.

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  5. I bet those burgers were around 15 cents back then. I have distinct memories of a "Sandy's" burger joint opening first with 15 cent burgers and 10 cent fries. Then came the McDonalds with the same price range. We used to get permission to leave campus at high school just to get one of those burgers for lunch.

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  6. We just used another kind of ball (a soccer one) and we had only three stations, but the end of the story is exactly the same!

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  7. I went by an area from my childhood yesterday and I could hardly recognize it!

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  8. I haven't been to my childhood haunts in years, I bet everything has totally changed!

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  9. I would love to visit my haunts but they are too far away.

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  10. The full service gas station is a thing of the past. The last one in this town closed more than a decade ago becoming a quick stop convenience store that also sold gas. Back in the 1970s I documented the businesses downtown for the SD Historical Society. There were two drug stores, a department store, two hardware stores, three cafes, two furniture stores, a camera store, and a number of bars and other restaurants. All that's left are the bars and a few restaurants, two antique malls, two consignment shops, and a bunch of vacant lots and empty buildings. It's called the malling of America.

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  11. There are more cars but fewer gas stations than before. I can see reducing the number of service bays, because cars are very reliable these days, but sometimes it gets pretty hard to find a place to fill up.

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