Gehrig’s Chevron hits 70 year mark

“It’s one of the very few businesses that has been continuously run by the same family,” said Patricia Gehrig, whose father-in-law, Rudy, opened the station with his brother Harold after World War II. She and husband Butch took over the station in 1986.

“Butch runs the day-to-day operations the same way his dad did,” Patricia said, “and I’ve always done the bookwork.”

“It doesn’t seem like it should be that long,” said Butch of the anniversary.

The station has an interesting history. Rudy was the child of immigrants — his father from Germany, his mother from Austria; they met and married in the States — who settled in the mid valley. Rudy went to grade school in Odell, but wasn’t able to continue his education, something he badly wanted.

“He was told he had to go to work by his parents,” Patricia said.

But he was “a very bright man,” and noticed orchards and logging ventures were becoming more established.

“When he saw that, he said, ‘We need a service station to serve agriculture in the middle valley,’” she said.

Rudy knew exactly where he wanted to put his station: In Odell, where he had grown up. He found a piece of property, complete with house, and talked to the owner about purchasing it.

Then World War II broke out, and Rudy and all four of his brothers enlisted in the military. But he never wavered from his goal of opening the station.

“They agreed on a price, and (that) when he came back from the war, he’d be able to buy it,” Patricia said.

For four years, Rudy was a chief engineer on a minesweeper located in the South Pacific, and every time he got paid, “he kept the money strapped to his body, and he didn’t spend his money because he had the goal and focus of buying that land in Odell,” she said.

When he came home, he built the station with Harold, from the ground up and by hand. His longtime goal finally came to fruition in June of 1946, when the station opened its doors for the first time. He and wife Margaret lived in the little house next door, eventually moving their growing family to a bigger house near Mid Valley Elementary.

“He had gas, tires, batteries — it was a full service station, just like today,” Patricia said. “We still wash your window and check your oil and give the same service you’d get in 1946.”

Gehrig’s also uses the same gas supplier — although in 1946, Chevron was called Standard Oil.

Rudy and Harold worked the station for 35 years before selling the business to Butch and Patricia — but Butch was already involved in the station’s operation, having begun working there as a teenager.

Another thing that hasn’t changed: Gehrig’s Chevron has always been a multi-generational meeting place. Walk in at any moment and you’ll see people in the station’s waiting room, just hanging out and talking. It’s not uncommon to see three generations of the same family in one day.

“The retired grandfathers and great-grandfathers sit on that bench in the morning, their children are in and out during the day — they’re running the orchards and they’re working — and their kids come in to get the tires on their bicycles aired up and fixed,” Patricia laughed. “I’ve seen this numerous times. ‘Grandpa was in this morning and your dad just left.’”

Part of the success of the station is that customers are treated like family — “but on the backside of that, we have been blessed by amazing friendships that have been created from that service station,” she said. “I’ve always told Butch … that we are blessed by amazing people who treat us like family, too.”

She’s also proud of the employees the station has seen through the years.

“Many a teenage boy has come to work here, and have their first job here,” she said. “We’re very proud of the people, the adults they’ve grown into, the careers they’ve gone on to have.”

The station’s Facebook page is a photographic testament to its history and to the family who started it. But someone is missing from the photos — Margaret. Why is that?

“They had nine children — you’re never going to see a picture of Margaret at the service station,” Patricia said.

Fair enough.

As for the station’s future, the plan is to keep looking to the past.

“We’re going to keep it running like always,” Butch said.