I was fourteen when I began working at the Amoco Service Station located at Little York and Bauman Road. I had worked at a grocery store prior to that job, but working with cars was a lot more fun for me. I got interested in cars in the early 1950s and wanted to know more about how things worked. Back in those days, you bought gasoline at service stations where a worker would pump the gas, check the water and oil under the hood, wash your windshield, and check the air in your tires. Some of the stations even vacuumed out your car, all while pumping your gas.
My starting pay was twenty-five cents per hour and the number of hours I worked each week depended on what time of the year and how business was that week. I started learning the tasks required at the pumps first before adding tasks like washing cars and trucks including what area to wash first and how to properly dry it without leaving streaks. There were no drive-thru car washes then and no power washers – bucket of water and hose for rinsing and leather chamois for drying. On good days, I got to drive the car owner home and then go back and pick him up when his car was done. I loved driving cars at that age.
I then learned how to do oil changes and grease the car chassis. That gave me the chance to learn about a lot of various kinds of cars and trucks. I learned about transmissions, rear-ends, front ends, adjusting brakes, testing batteries, and blown fuses. Over a period, I learned how to replace tires with new ones and how to repair both tube-type and tubeless tires. I remember the first time my boss had me fix tires on a large dump truck. There was no air gun, only a large tire tool, and a pipe to extend the handle for more leverage. I was so small that I had to bounce on the pipe several times to break the nut loose. The hard part was getting the tire off the rim to patch the tube and then airing it up without getting killed.
The work was hard, and the pay was little, but I was learning something new all the time. I began doing engine tune-ups, brake jobs, water pump replacements, and then internal engine work. By the time I was twenty, I had worked on every mechanical part of a car. There were no internet or YouTube videos to see how to do something and only a few automobile service manuals available outside of car dealerships; however, the concepts were similar for most models. Over the years, I had bought most of my own tools and I remember when I bought my first timing-light and torque wrench.
There were some regular customers who would come to get some service and then just hang around and talk for a while. There was one guy who came every Friday or Saturday evening and made a phone call to his girlfriend using the pay phone. The phone calls were ten cents at that time, but he would drop a nickel in and then hang up until he got a dial tone for a nickel. Then he would dial the number and talk to her for an hour.
One hot summer day, I was pumping gas for a pretty girl, and I was busy talking to her when the gas hose burst at the nozzle, and I was covered with gasoline from head to toe. There were no auto-shutoff valves back then and the pump had to be turned off at the pump to stop the gushing gasoline spraying everywhere. I only lived two blocks from the station, but by the time I walked home, my skin was starting to turn red, and a rash was on most of my body. I remembered thinking later that I could have become a walking torch if I had been around anything that would have ignited the gasoline. This incident occurred while I was still in junior high, but it never stopped me from working at service stations or working on cars.
What I learned from working in jobs like these helped me in many ways that were far more important than the money I earned doing them. Everything we try is an opportunity to learn and grow. With hard work that is honest work, we can learn to not give up just because it is not easy. From the age of nineteen on, I made my income working in IT and at all levels where I used my brain and ability to learn new things. However, it was not easy work and there were many very long hours through the years developing computer systems and solving problems. God blessed me in many ways and my parents impressed on me the willingness to put effort into whatever task I would take on. If you decide you are too good to do some work, you probably will not be great at many tasks you decide are good enough for you.
Colossians 3:23-24 New International Version
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
