Jill Church, who introduced me to many people on the route, took me from Bethany, OK (where we met up) and drove as far as Rolla, MO showing me around her neck of the woods. After a brief sojourn into Rolla we made our way back towards Bethany and Oklahoma City, driving up and down hills like a horse on a carousel. In the process, I began to slowly become fixated with the area and Route 66. Then, along the route, she told me, "Greg, it's time to meet Gary."
About 30-45 minutes later we drove up to a filling station with various decorations including a Wonder Bread sign welcoming the guest to Gay Parita, MO, a sign reading "Regular, 15 cents, Gas War," Sinclair's familiar green dinosaur posing and two 1924 Fry Guaranteed Measure "Mae West" pumps with Sinclair Gasoline globes guarding the premise. At which point I figured we were here just to take photos. However, after she stopped the car we got out and walked towards the door.
"Ding, Ding." The door opened and an older gentleman with a brown button shirt and attendant hat with the Sinclair emblem salute the guests. Seconds into the meeting, I asked to pose for a picture with him, acting like a young lady attempting to get the attention of four musicians from Liverpool, England as they stepped off a Pan-Am flight 40 years earlier.
As Jill and Gary spoke I wondered what it would be like to follow in the footsteps of Fred and Gay Mason, whose realized their dream of opening the station during the height of the Depression and to pursue one's dream like Gary Turner had done. How did Turner accomplish this?
The legend of the Mother Road was born in Abesville, Missouri. After marrying Lena where they had four children (two boys and two girls) he moved to California in the 1960s. Over time he worked various jobs including a “bank robber” at Knott's Berry Farm; cement truck driver; and owner and operator of a used car dealership. According to Route 66 University, after returning to the Missouri Ozarks in the late 1970s, Gary spent 23 years on American highways as an 18-wheel truck driver delivering groceries and produce to a four-state area. Upon retirement, "Gary decided he wanted to 'keep the past from slipping away,' so he acquired from his brother-in-law, Steve Faucett, what we now know as Gay Parita—a reproduction of an early-twentieth-century Sinclair gasoline station." In 2006 Gary and his son rebuilt the "1930's era" Sinclair station that burned down in 1955. It has attracted thousands of motorists and Route 66 junkies like myself.
Being in his presence sparked an instant love for his line of work, operating a filling station/roadie museum (no longer in service), meeting new people and displaying his love for Route 66. As I looked out to his left I noticed a stone structure that was the Gay Parita garage. As we left, I took some shots of his station and of the various signs and pumps and waved goodbye.
From this moment on, in early 2008, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, spend the rest of my life traveling down Route 66, though it eventually evolved into all two-lane , non-interstate highways, and getting to know its inhabitants. What I did not know was that it would be the last time him and I would ever interact again.
RIP Gary Turner
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