It all started out before then while helping around my Dads Kerr McGee gas station in the 1960's. He worked long hard hours there and could be where I learned to be a workaholic. Daddy never seemed to tire in his efforts to run that station and provide a living for his family. I was a young Jr. High School student at the time growing up in Capitol Hill a small area within Oklahoma City. We were not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we were happy. I joined the United States Army in December 1971 and shipped off to Fort Ord California at the tender age of 17, still a kid at heart. Well those days of being a kid didn't last long as I began my Boot Camp training. It was during the Vietnam era and anyone was subject to be deployed to War after their training. Since I was only 17, I was exempt for a year and a half because of my enlistment guarantee.
Right out of boot camp I went from Fort Ord to my Uncle Bill's house in Selma California and stayed there visiting family for 11 of my 14 days leave. I stayed so long that my Dad got worried and had a missing person bulletin issued. I guess I was having so much fun that I forgot to call home. I got to see relatives that I had not seen in several years. I stayed with Uncle Bill & Aunt Francis, Granny, got to see many of my cousins, and my Uncle Paul the truck driver came through while I was there. Wonderful time I had, Daddy had a few words for me when I finally got home.
Shortly after I was discharged from the Army, I went to work for a guy named Virgil at a Kerr McGee gas station not to far from where my dad owned his 2nd gas station. I soon learned to work on cars while there, mostly because I could not afford to pay someone else to do it. We had an outdoor hydraulic lift and an old manual tire machine where we manhandled those old tires onto the wheels. It was probably there where I learned that I did not meet very many strangers. A unique quality that my dad always had.
After a few years of doing that I ventured into other areas where I worked on cars. I eventually went into business for myself. I bought my own gas station a Phillips 66 store in Yukon Oklahoma where I lived. It was very good to me and I met some awesome people,some of which I am still friends with today.
As I write my stories I will reflect back to some of the earlier days in my career.
I hope that I don't just write things that will bore you to sleep or even worse.
If you are here, feel free to reply to my posts and let me know if you can relate to any of these stories I plan to share.
Thank you for giving me a try, I hope that you might be amused by some of these, some of them might even be nightmare stories like you hear about from this industry.
Ralpheboy
