Wheaton's

Wheaton's Texaco station sat on the corner of Pond street and Rt. 3a in Winchester, MA., across from what was then Mahoney's Rocky Ledge Farm. It was a half mile from my house as the crow flies, if one cut through a thicket of woods or a nearby farmer's field. I suppose it was already one of a dying breed of service stations by the late sixties when I first started frequenting it on foot as kid with an urge to explore.

Neighborhood friends and I would gravitate towards this place, drawn by the treasure trove of old cars out back and three generations of old tow trucks in various stages of disrepair. These included an old Model AA, and a mid-fifties F-100. Climbing in these relics and working the gears was irresistible to the likes of 9 and 10-year old boys. A "junk" pile of cast off engine parts lay to the side of the building for the taking. We would sometimes bring home old pistons and valves and polish them up in the basement. There was also the draw of the soda machine in the front lobby which dispensed 25 cent Cokes and Fanta grape and orange sodas. We'd sit there with the sun streaming in the big plate glass window in front, watching the mechanics work and listening to the bell ring every time a customer drove up. By the mid-seventies, I had gotten my driver's license and would pull into Wheaton's occasionally to fill the 2o gallon tank on the family Cutlass. By the early eighties, the station was gone, having been leveled to make way for an Old Colony. Another generic self-serve, and the end of an era.