“Maybe in another month or two we'll
In* running a beauty parlor in con-
neeiion with the place.”
We asked him if we might luke a
picture of his two girls out in front
of the place.
“Sure,” he said, “help yourself."
So we went outside again and got
our earners.
“Would you mind having your pic¬
ture taken?” we inquired.
Gals Sell Gals.
f»;ils. of gasoline. wo moan.
Hero's a filling station in Dur¬
ham that has endeavored to ad¬
just itself to war eonditions and
is doing* a very nice job of it.
I T was just a little hit of a surprise.
We drove up in front of the
■ Alexander Tiro Division on Main
Street in Durham last Wednesday and
out of the station bounced a couple
of attractive looking girls, dressed in
slacks.
“Yes, sir?" one of them said ex¬
pectantly.
“Please fell somebody inside that
we’d like to get eight gallons of gaso¬
line." we told her.
“Eight gallons: O.K.," she said.
She juggled the gadgets on the
pump in expert fashion, unscrewed
the cap oil our gasoline tank and pro¬
ceeded to pour out the required num¬
ber of gallons.
In the meantime, the other young
lady was wiping off the windshield.
"Cheek your oil and water?" she
asked politely.
We told her to go ahead.
She went about her work deftly and
quickly. “Oil and water are all right."
was her verdict.
After having paid for the gasoline
and having delivered our two coupons,
we went inside to talk to P. O. Poole,
who manages the place.
When we got inside the tilling sta¬
tion we were oven more surprised.
It wasn’t a tilling station at all: it
was a department store. Among the
articles on sale wo observed fishing
tackle, work clothes, electrical appli¬
ances, stoves, farm and garden sup¬
plies, hardware, camping and sport¬
ing goods, phonograph records and
many other items.
"What’s the idea?" we inquired of
Mr. Poole, who was wrapping up a
shirt.
"It’s the war,” was his reply.
“We’ve lost so many of our hoys that
we’ve had to replace them with girls,
and now approximately fifty per cent
of our personnel is feminine. And
they’re doing mighty fine work, too.”
Before the war, Alexander's dealt
almost exclusively with tires and auto
accessories. Of course you know what
a mod. Tires were taken off the
et almost entirely. Auto acces¬
sories were hard to get. Then came
gasoline rationing.
Mr. Poole decided that unless he
made some changes in his business, he
wouldn't have any business. He stud¬
ied the situation carefully and then
decided to stock up his place with a
general run of merchandise. 1 1 is line
of goods has steadily increased in va¬
riety and business has been pretty
good.
"Who knows!” he exclaimed while
telling us about all these things.
The Eternal Feminine
They looked rather dubious but
finally consented. The picture was not
taken, however, until they had gone
inside the station, combed their hair,
and powdered their faces.
Mr. Poole is one of those men who
believes in making the best of a situa¬
tion and adjusting himself to circum¬
stances. lie realized that with the
filling-station business shot to pieces,
he would have to do something to
make up for his losses. Today there
are hundreds of stations scattered
throughout North Carolina that have
had to close their doors. On the other
hand, there are others that are fol¬
lowing Mr. Poolo's policy: they are
altering their methods so that they
may continue to operate.
"The girls arc able to do most of
the work around the station," he told
us, “except some of the heavy jobs,
such as changing tires. They even
wanted to learn to do that, but I told
them they’d better let some of our
remaining men attend to it. Anyway,
there’s plenty of other work to keep
them busy. If the draft keeps on tak¬
ing more of our men away from us,
I reckon we’ll have to keep right on
hiring girls. So far the plan has
worked out very satisfactorily.’’
Like Their Work
The young ladies apparently like
their work. One of them said to us:
“it beats clerking in a store all to
pieces. In the first place, it gives us
a chance to spend most of our time
outdoors. Then, too, people are in¬
variably polite, thoughtful and con¬
siderate. First off they act sort of
surprised when we come out to wait
on them, but they realize what is
taking plnee and they understand im¬
mediately why we are doing this kind
of work.”
The other one told us: "It is differ¬
ent from any other kind of work I
ever have done, but 1 like it best of
all. It gives you a chance to meet
a lot of interesting people: people
who are doing things and are going
places.”
Mr. l’oolc said he was satisfied in
every way with the new arrangement
and that bis customers evidently felt
the same way about it.
8
