working on the skinny

working on the skinny

fiction
edward w pritchard

If you were Serbian living in Akron between 1955 and 1984 when the proprietor Bosco R. passed on you always bought your weekly full tank of premium gas from Bosco's Sohio behind the Old post office on Market Street near St Vincent High school where Lebron James later won the basketball championship. My Mom used to have me take the Car up to Bosco's Friday nights after she got paid because she hated getting in and out of the car in front of the men who worked for Bosco. The gas lanes at Bosco's were narrow because the entire premises of the Sohio station were located on the South mail truck lanes there at the magnificent old Post office where the mail truck drivers made the difficult left turn onto busy West Market street each morning pre-1955 when the auxiliary Post Office closed. I myself had a hard time getting in and out of Mom's car because you could only open the door half way without scraping the high South Wall of the Old Post office when Bosco waived the dip stick at you to show you were down a quart or two as usual and it was real bad for the car.

Serbian people could eat paprikash at the New Era, or fried Chicken at Belgrade's of Barberton any week night according to their taste but by informal custom were coerced to buy all their gas at Bosco's Sohio. After I got arrested in Judge Murphy's court and spent two years in jail I worked for Bosco till I got back on my feet. Bosco always saw to it that I got a dollar or two tip from each of his wealthier customers on a fill-up while I worked the lanes of his Sohio.

Bosco called working for him working on the skinny because of the narrow lanes there at the gas station. We had a good community of Serbian people there around Barberton and Akron back in the Day.