50 years of service for Bob Reed’s Auto Service of San Mateo | Local News
Considering that its opening 49 a long time ago, Bob Reed’s Support Station has noticed gas embargoes, $7 fuel charges, and other merchants appear and go, with the eponymous proprietor even now going powerful at 80 and with programs to keep on.
“I don’t want to retire,” Reed mentioned. “I’d be bored.”
Reed took more than the auto maintenance and gasoline station at 1641 Palm Ave. in 1973 and has built a legacy spanning a long time. Reed has committed his time and endeavours to delivering a neighborhood station for everyone. His generate to carry on will come from connecting and chatting with prospects and neighborhood neighbors. The store primarily focuses on tire service and brakes, and his working day is usually hectic with routine maintenance, tire deliveries and aiding clients. He grew up in fuel stations all his life and finds there is nevertheless plenty of work for him now.
“I really don’t know nearly anything else but this. I’m not excellent at plumbing or carpentry, but I’m good here,” Reed said.
As a kid, Reed arrived to San Mateo from Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1948, positioned at the Nebraska-Iowa border and inside the Omaha, Nebraska, metropolitan location. Reed grew up doing work in gas stations in the location and as a mechanic, normally performing out of his auto accomplishing positions for consumers. In between racing boats and motorcycles, he took above his very first gasoline station on Fourth Avenue and Delaware Street in December 1966 and stayed for 7 years. In 1968, when San Mateo law enforcement Sgt. Gordon Joinville was shot and killed at Fifth Avenue and Claremont Avenue, Reed discovered Joinville and known as on the dispatch radio for help.
Considering the fact that he arrived in San Mateo, he and his family have made the Hayward Park neighborhood their household. His father owned a cafe on South Boulevard, not too significantly away from the station. Following door is the All Star Awards trophy retailer, which his brother owns. Reed also lives just a few residences down from the keep, letting him to come to function quickly. His son Jim is one of the key personnel at the shop and began when he was 11 and will acquire about when Reed just can’t operate the shop anymore. His spouse, Randy Reed, who has a diploma in accounting from San Jose Point out College, does the funds and administration. One particular of their partitions is devoted to shots of his two kids and 5 grandchildren. Many of his grandchildren hung out in the station though rising up, and he enjoys obtaining Jim doing work with him and inheriting the family small business. The shop also presents him a place to mend and store boats and vehicles that he races.
“I like this put. It is like my household,” Reed claimed of the station.
Randy Reed, who has been married to Bob for 53 several years, mentioned though running the station entire time is a problem, Bob nonetheless likes assisting his prospects.
“He continue to likes to give company. If anyone comes in and requirements air in their tires, he will go out and do that,” Randy Reed said.
Whilst gas in the six and seven-greenback-gallon selection is the best Reed has ever seen, the most challenging moments happened all through the 1973 oil disaster when the retail store initially commenced. The disaster happened due to an embargo in opposition to the United States and other western nations around the world for supporting Israel for the duration of the Yom Kippur War by various Arab nations. The ban on petroleum exports substantially amplified oil charges and availability, ensuing in scarcities unseen just before. Cars could only gasoline up on sure days, and there was not ample gasoline for all people inspite of the vehicles ready down the block, and the station could only pump 500 gallons a working day. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake induced damage and necessary advancements. He and Randy stayed home throughout the pandemic for about 3 months, when company slowed down, but support and gasoline demands are back to pre-pandemic stages, and he is keen to continue operate.
Thomas Sanfilippo, who has frequented the station for over 20 decades, lives in the community and understands he can fall the automobile off and occur by a several hrs afterwards when carried out, having company he just can’t find elsewhere. He praised Reed for developing a potent community small business simply because of his frame of mind and professionalism.
“I like performing business enterprise with local men and women, and Bob’s a terrific person,” Sanfilippo mentioned. “He’s always cordial and takes care of my car.”
curtis@smdailyjournal.com
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