Before they were called convenience stores.

​One of the fun things I remember about growing up in Oakdale was the convenience stores and gas stations. Gross’s and B, J, & T were the last two. Another thing was the scrap yard over by the Square D.  

     Until I got old enough to mow, the scrap yard was how we earned money. At first it was copper wire, because pop cans were still made of steel. We scoured the neighborhood looking for copper tubing and wire out by trash cans. 

     We’d take our haul to the scrap yard and get a buck or two if we were lucky. Sometimes, I think people put that stuff by the trash cans for us to find. Sometimes we found three or four dollars worth. I don’t think anyone would throw that much copper away back then. The early seventies was rough for a lot of people. 

     With our cash in our pockets, we’d pick one of the stores and buy a coke, gum, and candy. 

     What brought all this back to me was drinking a cup of coffee from a B.C. coffee mug my mom gave me. I vaguely remember getting them at the Standard station when I was very young. 

     The strongest memory that came back today was B, J, & T taking out their gas pumps and filling the underground tanks with concrete.  

     We heard the owners say that the EPA mandated that older gas tanks without leak protection had to be replaced. The owners couldn’t afford the tens of thousands of dollars it would cost to replace the tanks. Their only choice was to remove the pumps and fill in the tanks. 

     My friends and I watched as the first concrete truck dumped a load of concrete into the gas tanks. We didn’t realize it back then, but now I know that the EPA killed the full service gas stations with a stroke of a pen.