Lend An Ear To The End Of An Era

Technically, you should be lending an eye. Or both eyes, since you're not Farmer H. To read my boring story about the demise of my favorite Casey's. They're a convenience store chain. I remember the day when Hillmomba had one on almost every corner. And between corners. Every little connected town that makes up Hillmomba had one. I suppose there's too much competition now.

The Casey's I used to work at, in the town out past my mom's house, is long gone. I can't say I really miss it. But it might have been fun to point out to Genius and The Pony on the couple of times a year we went by there.

The Casey's down the street from the high school where I was VALEDICTORIAN has also been gone for quit a while. I miss that one a little more, because it was only a few blocks from my $17,000 house in town. While Farmer H was working during the day, and I was off for the summer, I made a daily trip there for...can you believe it...a DIET COKE! I don't think they had the 44 oz cups back then. I had one of their plastic cups for refills. So I'm assuming it held 32 oz.

The Casey's I'm bemoaning now, though, was my favorite. It was on the way to school, which also made it on the way home from school. We made many stops there for morning donuts if the boys were being especially cooperative. And even more stops there to get a called-in pizza on the way home after Genius's practices for freshman basketball, and later Scholar Bowl practice for him AND The Pony. The Pony loved their cheese bread, but not so much their pizza. Which was fine, since the special often included free cheese bread.

You can't even tell that it WAS a Casey's! All markings have been removed. The sign was gone the day after it closed! Now the red fake brick roof is gone, too. The window is boarded up!

We also made many a stop for air. FREE AIR! Because Farmer H does not maintain T-Hoe's tires properly. C'mon! That's the job of the man in the house. But I had to rely on a Pony to do a man's work. And now I have to do it myself. WITHOUT my special Casey's.

That was the place I bought T-Hoe's gas. For years. Ever since the 7-ELEVEN out by the park closed. So NOW my gas comes from a lesser Casey's. Not the one in Hillmomba proper. They only sell the regular. I put the premium in T-Hoe. The price per mile comes out about the same, but I have to get gas less often if I used the higher grade.

The Pony was my main gas-pumper once Genius stopped riding with me AS SOON AS HE GOT HIS LICENSE. Oh, come on. It's not like pumping gas is hard. Casey's had a covered roof. So The Pony didn't even get wet during a rain. In fact, the checker grew to know him as Correct Change Guy. No more gas now, the tanks have been dug out and the hole filled in!

Yes, I'll miss my special Casey's, because of all the memories it gave me.

Thank the Gummi Mary, the Little Caesar's is still in business. That's where I told The Pony to hurry up with his SuperBall prize arcade game, because "Do you know how hard it is, standing here, holding this pizza and your balls?"