Gas Pumps, Asphalt, Sweet and Salty Snacks, Adequate Bathrooms
We stopped for gas somewhere between Houston and Rowlett last Friday night. It looked like a hundred other gas stations I’ve seen in the last forty years — gas pumps, asphalt, sweet and salty snacks, adequate bathrooms. You know the kind of place I’m talking about. You’ve stopped at them, too.
They’re not the Ritz or the Carlton or the Hyatt, but they are essential to the economy of our nation. They provide services that make it possible for folks to do what folks need to do.
Though I must confess that I walk into those places with a bit of trepidation. Sometimes I leave surprised at the nice clean facilities; other times I leave hoping I didn’t pick up something I would rather leave behind.
But where would we be without them? When we walk into a fancy candy shop or a trendy bookstore in a tourist town, it isn’t surprising to be greeted with a sign on the door that reads: No Public Restroom. Sometimes the signs are a bit friendlier: Restrooms for Customers Only.
If I have ever seen such a sign on a gas station restroom, I’m not remembering it. This I know for sure: a sign like that is rare in a place like that, if they exist at all.
So many people do so many things for so many others and they — like the folks who provide gas pumps, asphalt, sweet and salty snacks, and adequate bathrooms — probably don’t get a real, heartfelt thank you once a day, much less all the times they really should get one of those kinds of thank yous.
The gas station where we stopped somewhere between Houston and Rowlett last Friday night not only supplied gas pumps, asphalt, sweet and salty snacks, and adequate bathrooms, it also provided a parking lot from which I saw these beautiful views.
It’s so easy to take things for granted. When cars first became popular, drivers carried extra gasoline with them so they could get where they wanted to go. Even when I was a little girl, which was decades later, there weren’t enough gas stations along country byways to provide the need for little ones like my brother and me so that sometimes Mama and Daddy had to find some bushes along the way.
When I was a girl, when folks drove into a gas station (or filling station or service station), the car passed over a cord which rang a bell inside the station. This signaled the attendant to come out to pump the gas and clean the windshield. The modern meaning of service station has changed, but service is still there. What would we do without it?
Ray’s daddy used to say that a person should never pass up the opportunity to say thank you or use the restroom. Maybe the next time we stop at a gas station between somewhere and somewhere, we can remember to do both.
Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John.
Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them,
“You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them;
and their great men exercise authority over them.
But it is not this way among you,
but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;
and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:41-45
We are fortunate enough to live in QT country. They are amazing & clean service stations. So, when we travel we realize how spoiled we are, and how much they can vary. We were in Pawhuska,OK recently and all the gas stations there had “no public restrooms” boldly displayed on their doors. First time I’ve ever seen such a thing. Though I understand why with the recent surge of tourism to one local business there.