The
sign in front of the gas station
says “Unleaded, 3.39, special on Colt .357 Magnum,
six-inch barrel.”
Visitors here in the valley do a double take when
they see Vince’s sign
there at what we all know as “the gas station gun shop.”
That’s because Vince
doesn’t believe in being deprived of his passion while
earning a living. His
passion: guns. His living: pumping gas.
We had all known of his passion for many years. He
is the perennial
president of the local rod and gun club, plans nearly all
their annual
spaghetti feeds to raise money for targets.
If you want to go hunting, all you need to do is
pull up in front of
Vince’s house on the edge of town with some hounds in the
back of the truck in
the evening and honk the horn. You don’t even need to call
ahead.
The combination business began about three years
ago when an out-of-town
customer pulled up to the gas pumps, walked inside to pay
Vince, and saw the
owner sitting there polishing a 1911 Government Model .45
auto.
CPR wasn’t necessary, but it did give Vince some
thinking to do.
“I looked around in here,” he said, “and saw all
this wall space. What
did I have on it? Fan belts, stacks of motor oil
containers, those little air
fresheners shaped like pine trees. What a waste! So I put
that stuff out in the
repair side of the station and nailed up this knotty pine.
Looks pretty good,
doesn’t it?
“Then I got my federal firearms license, bought a
bunch of ammunition
and some guns, and set it up.”
He says he’s always sure to put a gun ad up on the
big white sign, along
with the gas prices, so people won’t be surprised when
they walk in and find
him cleaning a Model 70 behind the counter.
“I actually do okay in the gun business here,” he
said. “It isn’t enough
to be a gun shop on its own, really. We aren’t a big
enough town.”
And then he grinned and said, “And I’ve never been
held up.”
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