Had a chance to visit with my granddad at his service station today, while working on a power steering pump; so I asked him about his first service station. Mr.Cleve Thornhill owned a Pan-Am station, across from the post office, where Citizens Bank stands today. While working at Orleans Furniture, my granddad, Kenny Moore, was persistent in asking Mr.Cleve to let him lease the business, which Mr.Thornhill eventually did. A seismography company was in the area, stopped, opened an account with my granddad, & did enough business there that he paid his lease off in the first year. He serviced all the vehicles & fixed flats. Gasoline was 17.9 cents per gallon. The foreman with the seismography company lived in the house where Elmo Harrisons Insurance agency is today. He asked that the bill not be sent through the mail & said hed just walk across the street to get it. Next to the Pan-Am station was the Chatterbox cafe, which had a good tv & radio. Moore *thinks* there was a tire store in there somewhere, but then there was Ray Knights TV&Repair, then the Shepards building. The Shepards building was 2-story. Moore said, after getting out of the army, he took CPA courses with the G.I.Bill in the Shep.bldgs upstairs. He said hed visited Mr.Cleve recently @ the Grove. He ran the business in the Pan-Am station until ground-breaking for the new Citizens Bank, @ which point he relocated to a station built by Jack Forbes, just up the road & across from Wards. He talked about the Walden funeral home & the Gardner Hospital, both located around where the Gardner Shopping Center is today. Said his Aunt Marie had City Market on Second Street. Somewhere around City Hall, there was a Dutch Girl Laundry; & on Second Street, there was a Fortenberrys Barber Shop, which had bout 6-7 chairs & a shoe-shine station, operated by a man called Sambo.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:37:58 +0000
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