Cambridge has always been known for having a lot of churches. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, the only thing we had more of was gas stations. They were called “service” stations because they did more than pump gas, they had bays to service automobiles.
On Park Street there were nine, yep nine, service stations. Starting at the New School looking northward toward the Railroad Overpass you would see Pete Clark’s Mobil, George Brimmer’s Sinclair, George MacArthur’s Johnson Oil (Shell), Ken Randles’ Texaco, Chevron, Smith’s Sunoco, Howard Ramsden’s Esso, Ken Keys’ Gulf, and Charles DuRoss.
DuRoss house and gas station was located on the west side of North Park about where Coral’s Corner is today, just before the old railroad overpass. You could pull into his gas pump at any hour, day or night, toot your horn, and he’d come out to pump some gas, no matter how much or “how little”.
Once a group of teenagers was returning home late one Friday night from a lake dance. They pulled into DuRoss’, tooted their horn, and Charles climbed out of bed to greet them. The driver asked for “one”. Charles asked “one dollar?”. The reply “no, just one gallon” (30-cents). Any time, day or night, no matter how much … or how little.
