Service a Thing of Past

The big oil companies have abandoned their sacred obligation to the American motoring public. We used to call them service stations, and they had employees eager to help you. Today we have refueling stations for your gas tank and your stomach. There is no service.

If you stop at a “gas station” to seek directions you will be answered in a foreign tongue or such badly fractured English that you will not recognize it as English. Even worse, the person behind the cash register in the bullet-proof booth just got into town last week and his uncle put him to work. He will sell you a map for $2, the same map the oil companies used to give away free.

Now, God forbid, you get a flat tire. There is nobody available on Saturday or Sunday to do this “menial” work. If you are lucky you have a good spare, properly inflated, in your trunk. Now all you have to do is call the Auto Club and in about an hour another fractured English-speaking person will appear. All most of them know how to do is to hook up your car and tow it away to their home base.

They will tow you. But where? No garages are open and most tow operators do not have a secure place to store your vehicle until you return for it. What can you do? You can camp out in your car all night to protect it from being stripped or vandalized or you can park it, lock it and pray.

MONROE PERRY

Woodland Hills