Road Kill: Nonpaying Gas Station Patrons and Items for the Home

Previous items in this space about motorists’ adventures at Self-Serve Island reminded Aleta Carpenter of an experience she had in Durango, Colo.

When she pulled up to a gasoline pump and went inside to hand the clerk her credit card, he laughed and said, “You’re from California, aren’t you?” He could tell, he said, because she was trying to pay for her gas first. That wasn’t necessary.

“Out here,” he said, “if you fill up and don’t pay, we just shoot you.”

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TRAFFIC OBSTACLES DU JOUR: After KNX traffic reporter Donna Page reported assorted freeway spills of lumber, an air-conditioning unit and a “farm implement” Monday morning, anchor Dick Helton remarked: “We could almost start our own do-it-yourself store.”

The “implement,” on the Garden Grove Freeway, was later determined to be a wheelbarrow.

RUNNING WITH THE HOUNDS: Peter Davison of Santa Monica found a place to park that has gone to the dogs (see photo), while Michael Jelf of Lomita bought a kennel for his Saint Bernard Theo despite a warning (see accompanying). Jelf admitted that Theo’s “skill with a wrench leaves much to be desired,” so he might have to help the pooch assemble the structure.

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PTOMAINE TIDBITS: Pardon the alliteration, but Palm Springs resident Peter Palm wrote to ask about Ptomaine Tommy’s. Specifically, Palm wondered about the origin of the term “chili size,” a dish said to have been created by Ptomaine Tommy DeForest at his tiny Lincoln Heights eatery in the 1920s.

“Almost every coffee shop, cafe, hash house and beanery across the nation has this dish, but no one--I iterate no one--can tell me the origin,” Palm lamented.

Fortunately, the late Jack Smith knew the story. Years ago, the Times columnist recounted how DeForest introduced the size, “a hamburger covered with chili and beans and sprinkled with chopped onions, called ‘violets’ or ‘flowers.’ ” (Bread was on the side, thus differentiating it from a chili burger.)

DeForest at first offered his specialty in two sizes: hamburger size and steak size.

“But,” Smith wrote, “few customers took the steak size, and in time that term was dropped and the waiter would simply holler (to the chef), ‘Size!’ ”

And don’t hold the violets.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at steve.harvey@latimes.com.