Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 2, 1993 TAG: 9212310335
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
THEY'VE HUNG UP THEIR LAST HOSE
Brothers-in-law Earl Surface and Jack Newman have been pumping gas and taking care of their customers' vehicles for 34 years at Earl's Mobil, but they put the brakes on all that Thursday."When we close, that's it," said Surface as the finale drew near. "Probably 2 or 3 o'clock. Depends on how it's going."
The partners, both 64, are retiring.
"I'm gonna loaf for a while and maybe get into something part-time," Surface said. "We haven't had a vacation since '73."
"No plans," Newman said of his immediate future. "Every day, just day to day, and no more work. I plan on just staying retired, just around the house."
The men had been working at Southwest Motors, a Chrysler dealer, in their native Pulaski when Surface leased the station. Newman joined him about six months later.
"And we've been toughing it out ever since," Surface said with a grin.
"Everything's changed since we came here. [Interstate] 81 wasn't even there. [Virginia] 99 wasn't even there. The Maple Shade Inn was around there behind us," he said.
"The automobiles, they've changed from the old point-type ignition to the electronic ignition, rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive."
They bought Pulaski County's first tuneup machine in the early 1970s, Surface said, and garages referred vehicles to them for a diagnosis.
"We'd analyze 'em and they'd repair 'em," Newman said.
Race cars going to and from the Bristol drag strip would stop for motor tuneups. Earl's Mobil also sold the area's first mag wheels, so called because they used to contain magnesium, and wide Mickey Thompson Performance Tires.
Back in the 1950s, they would line brakes and put in spark plugs for about $14. They uncovered an old invoice that showed cartons of cigarettes going for $1.85 back in 1965.
The station weathered the gas shortage and long lines of cars during the Arab oil embargo of 1973.
"You had so much gas to pump a day, and you figured out how many cars that was and which was your last car, and you'd put a sign on the back of it: `This is the last car today.' That was a mess," Surface said.
When they started their partnership 34 years ago, their station was one of seven in the five-to-six block section of U.S. 11 coming into Pulaski from the west.
"When this one's gone, there'll be one [left]," Surface said. "When 81 opened, that killed the traffic on 11."
There used to be so many customers that the partners had as many as five boys working for them, including Newman's son, Mark, who now works at the Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp. plant in Dublin.
For the past 10 years, Surface and Newman have handled all the work as more traffic went past them on the interstate or came into town by Virginia 99.
"And then self-service cut it back, too," Newman said.
"You might pump more gallons, but it'll take less money," Surface agreed.
Mark Newman laughs about how he never looked forward to school vacation because he knew he would be putting in long hours with his father.
"It's a gold mine for a young man who wants to work 80 hours a week," he said.
The station used to be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. That changed in recent years to 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
"When you fight it that long, it gets to you. You wear out," Surface said.
But people will miss the station, including widows whose husbands had been its customers and who have continued there rather than pumping their own gas at a fully self-service station.
"They don't know how, and they're not gonna learn," Surface said.
One woman who stopped Wednesday found she could not get her van started again. Surface had it going within minutes.
"About three gallons of gas in the manifold," he confided when he came back inside.
And there are the other regulars, people who live nearby or drop in to chat with Earl and Jack.
"Where are we gonna go to loaf now?" one customer joked on the station's next-to-last day of business.