Share your stories

Last week I had a book event at the Brown County Public Library in Green Bay. My favorite part of these events is the willingness of people to share their own stories. One of the attendees was a man in a NAPA auto parts shirt who regaled me with stories while I was autographing books. He started working in his dad's gas station at age five. It was a full-service station and he washed windows while his dad pumped gas. Since he was too short to reach the windshield, his dad rigged up a stand with an upside down five gallon pail set in a rubber tire. He would pull the pail over to a car, hop on top and squeege the windshield. Even so, he could never reach the top center of the windshield, so a little inverted dirty triangle left behind became his signature. His gleeful description of this odd contraption left me with a smile that stayed with me all the way back to Madison.

Hold the Presses!

I opened my mail Monday and was surprised to see two photographs and a handwritten note. It was sent by an owner of a gas station that is featured in our forthcoming book, Fill ‘er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations. Perhaps you have seen the small station in the companion documentary Wisconsin Public Television produced. If not, you can watch it online here.

The photographs I received in the mail, shown below, were not labeled. The note said a man in his eighties dropped them off recently at the little Platteville station. The images show his aunt and uncle who worked at the station in the 1930s. They likely spent many hours pumping gas and keeping customers happy.

The note didn’t say who the two were though. It didn’t say if they owned the station or just worked there. No matter what they did, it's likely the little station was a big part of their lives.

For the past two years we were unable to uncover a historic photograph of the station or anyone who worked there. It was pretty funny the photographs arrived just as the book is due in stores, but I am still glad Tom Nodorft of B&B Service chose to send them to us.

I shouldn’t have been surprised at this nice gesture. I am sure it will happen again and again. Jim and I know photographs and stories (and maybe, corrections) will come in after the book is officially published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

Although it’s too late to stop the presses, we want to hear from you. Don’t hesitate to drop us a line and let us know about a station you just saw, photographs you have, or your connection to a Wisconsin station.