But Then Again I Could Be Wrong: The Book of Rants

Jim Rising

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009 Jim Rising

All I wanted to do was fill the
car up with overpriced gas.

Why can’t all the gas pumps be consistent when it comes to paying? Some say prepay, and some don’t. In this day and age of petrol being as valuable as plutonium I understand that the temptation to pump and jump is greater then ever. So I understand that the service stations who suffer from this kind of theft sometimes want the cash in front. I have dealt with many transactions in my life that were cash in front and I have no big problem with that. The problem was that I did not know that I had to pay cash in front.

At 5 a.m. I was at the pump and even though that’s pretty early I was alert enough to be able to read. So I did. I looked the pump over high and low and saw no sign that I was to pay first and pump later. To me that was sort of like a gift. Instead of walking in and handing over my cash and then walking back and pumping the gas and then walking back to get my change I could complete the transaction in one trip. But no. As soon as I squeezed the pump nozzle a harsh voice came out of some hidden speaker. “You have to prepay,” it shouted. So I went in and gave the man my money.

Now I am sure the labor pool that gas stations have to draw upon for midnight to 6 a.m. workers is pretty shallow. But this guy looked like Festus from Gunsmoke. Only older. I remarked that there was no sign on the pump indicating prepay for cash. He said to me in the same voice that he used on the hidden speaker. “You have to prepay.”

“I understand that,” I said. “But you could put a sign on the pump and save us both time.” “You have to prepay” was his response.