My friend Leslie who moved back to where we grew up in Plymouth New Hampshire sent me a recent picture of my old Texaco Station. We were there but a fleeting moment in our lives, yet I have great memories from that brief moment in time.
I remember one night a VW Micro Bus pulled in, all painted up with rainbows and peace signs. A young hippie couple with three young children got out of the Bus. The engine sounded real sick, oil and smoke were pouring out out the back. I took a look at it and saw a hole in the side of engine. The Bus would go no further. The couple had just taken over the Jack o Lantern Motel north of town and would not have any money for e few months until the crop came in. Neal and I agreed to fix up an old 36 hp engine I would supply the know how and the Mike, the Hippie would provite the labor. He could pay us for parts after the crop came in. We finished the work in about a week of. Mike would come in after his chores were done at the motel and the farm to work on the engine. It was late on a Friday night that we saw him off with the newly refurbished engine. Early October on a nice sunny New England fall Saturday, at about noon, the Bus pulls into the station. The whole family is out for a drive and they came to pay their bill and brought into the gas station 3 huge trays of Home made Brownies. We had recently started selling fuel to the Plymouth Police Department since we were the only station in town that was open late, they started to give us some of their fuel business.
It did not take us long to figure out that pumpkins were not the only crop brought in and everyone that had a brownie had the giggles, Neal was in low orbit. At about 3pm a Rookie Officer was there to fill up the cruiser before starting his shift, he came into the office to sign the charge and saw the Brownies. He put down the pen and grabbed 3 of them and headed out the door stopped in mid bite turned back in and grabbed two more. About an hour later I had to run an errand and took the then new Plymouth bypass. I saw the officer by the side of the road with his lights on and it appeared he had pulled over some one on a bicycle. 45 minutes later I was coming back and the car, with the officer sleeping with the cruisers lights still blazing, were still in the same spot. I stopped behind the cruiser, got out and walked up to the cop cars window. There was the officer sitting perfectly still passed out, two of 5 brownies remaining in the seat next to him. I reached across the seat and grabbed the remaining Brownies and noticed his ticket book, I took a quick glance and and saw that he had given the bicyclist a speeding ticket for 85 MPH. If I recall you had one of those Brownies too.
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