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Thursday, July 10, 2003

Route 66 Gas Station Offers Full Service The Old-Fashioned Way

By Tim Menicutch
Journal Staff Writer
    Sal Lucero does windows. And he's proud of it. Lucero, owner of the Whiting Bros. gasoline station on the east end of old Route 66 in Moriarty, runs a full-service outfit.
    He washes windows, checks oil and even tire pressure if it's requested.
    "I do it the old-fashioned way," said Lucero. "That's the best way."
    Lucero claims his Whiting Bros. gas station is the last of its kind. He said Whiting Bros. used to be a popular chain all along Route 66, with stations from Shamrock, Texas, to Barstow, Calif.
    Lucero started pumping gas at Moriarty's Whiting Bros. station in 1965 before buying the business in 1985, when all the other Whiting Bros. stations were dying out.
    "The Whiting brothers, Art and Earnest, were from Arizona," said Lucero. "They started the business in 1917 selling gas in 55-gallon barrel drums."
    Lucero's station could be mistaken for closed down if not for the open door just beyond the antiquated gasoline pumps.
    The faded yellow sign on the west end of the property is hard for passing motorists to read.
    "I never had enough money to paint the sign," Lucero said. "It's all faded out. I'm sure lots of people think we're closed."
    The five gas pumps — the sixth one at the two-lane filling station is permanently out of order — are out of date.
    No swipe-type credit card readers here.
    "It's a relic," Lucero. "You don't see these anymore."
    Lucero said some of his customers are people who remember the old filling station chain.
    "They remember the stations and stop in," he said. "We get lots of repeat customers, year after year."
    In fact, Lucero said one customer — an antique dealer from Nebraska — has been stopping at his station for about 40 years now.
    "He's been coming for a long time, probably since the '60s," said Lucero.
    Lucero said some of the old Whiting Bros. stations also had hotels on the property to accommodate weary long-distance travelers.
    "The Whiting brothers were way ahead of their time," said Lucero.
    Lucero lives in a small house located on the back of his property with his wife of 44 years, Inez.
    "We raised three kids here," he said. "It's kept us going for 20 years."
    Lucero remembers when gasoline cost 30 cents a gallon. He also remembers when the Whiting Bros. pumps were lined up with customers.
    These days, however, business isn't exactly booming.
    "Business will never be the same," said Lucero. "Those days are gone and will never come back."
    But Lucero keeps the business going. It's all he's ever known.
    A sticker on the front window of the old station succinctly sums up Lucero's reason for staying around.
    It reads: "My Way Is the Highway."