I like a lot of weird things but ‘oof look at that petrol station’ probably gets the biggest laugh-snort from my other half. There’s just something about them.
When I was younger, I liked the idea of the 24-hour petrol station down the road. Someone was always there, watching over the world while I slept. As lights went out, the reassuring blue and red glow from the Mobil would continue to be a beacon of reassurance. Later, it was one of the first places my best-friend-neighbour and I were allowed to go on our own. Holding a handful of change from his mam or my gran, we’d spend ages making careful selections of a drink and a snack to bring back home, proof of our independence. ‘The Garage’ as I called it, was a meeting place for friends coming together from different directions, to walk to school. It was a signpost on the bus to tell me I was nearly home.
These days I just enjoy their aesthetic. They are little frontiers that can look like an apocalyptic refuge given the right weather. Different brands try to assert their supremacy with a variety of bright neon colours that scream out in the night. Curious additions come and go: a giant Costa coffee cup, a variety of car wash types, a laundrette…
People come and go too of course and that’s another joy of petrol stations; the transience. Watch one for just five minutes and the scene is unlikely to stay the same. The man who meticulously puts on the plastic gloves before he touches the pump, the kids who are nagging for sweets when their parent pops in to pay, the bored and tired attendant straightening the newspapers in a rare, quiet moment. The stories petrol stations could tell.
Petrol stations at night, though. That’s the magic for me. A wet, hazy night and the bright colours take on new life, and, I won’t lie, look a little Blade-Runner-Dystopian too, which is part of their appeal. For years when we’ve driven past a variety of petrol stations at night, I’ve been saying I must bring my camera and get some images, so I figured it was time to stop talking about it and actually do it.
Definitely something about a petrol station at night – they’re like little islands of light.
Stephen Yallop kindly commented with this wonderful memory and had to share it and he agreed
When we were young we collected the 1970 Esso World Cup coins ,one Sunday afternoon the ice cream man turned up he was foreign and the family all wanted an ice cream we all wanted a 99.My sister said I will get them as I have some money,my dad said what have you been saving your pocket money,she went out and I followed,she was getting the 99’s and I was taking them up to the house and coming back for the rest,when we had finished my sister put some coins on the ice cream van ledge the ice cream man started to pick the coins up and screamed no no foreign currency! my sister pointed to one of the coins who is that, the ice cream man said Alan Mullery yes said my sister and he plays for England and ran off up the road,of course I was neither use nor ornament as I was lying on the ground laughing of course dad bailed us out. 🙃🙃.
Haha thank you for sharing that, I hope his sister got her coins back! I had a couple of Esso t-shirts when I was a kid, one that was black and white with a tiger on it, and the other a Disney one. The rubbish we used to collect from petrol stations eh!
Hahaha thanks Marie yeah we got the coins back but I was still laughing but i had my ice cream quickly just in case my dad took it off me for finding it all funny.