severngaspumps.com Blog

For those of you who think this isn’t hard work…..think again. My son and I spent five days, last week, in the woods pulling out gas pumps.  Now, when I say pulling  out, that’s exactly what I mean.  There were times that we had to cut down trees and fight off ground bees.  The temperature was 104 on one day with a humidity level of pure H2O.  After we cut things loose we took big wheeled hand trucks and manually dragged the units to an old logging road.  We staged them there until Friday when I had a good friend show up with his 53′ road tractor/trailer combination.  Loading, with the help of a farm tractor with a lifting system, took about 7 hours.  We drove through the night to get home where we proceeded to unload what you see.  As we removed them from the truck, they seemed to swell up……LOL….guess it was the air!  Trying to count this many is a challenge but three of us agree that there is a bit over two hundred in this bunch.  Still have twelve more to pick up this week.  My wife and neighbor are calling me Sandford and I think it fits!  Add these to what is in stock and we current have over four hundred units…. By the way…..we’ll sell any one gas pump….or all at once!  The more you buy……the better the price! Paul

I got a call from a young working man, a couple of month’s ago.  He said that he had an old gas pump that belonged to his Grandfather. He had taken the doors off in an attempt to start to restore the pump and became overwhelmed.  Lucky for us, he was searching the web and discovered our site.  He sent a few pictures and we decided to give it a try.  He lives in Pennsylvania so we agreed to pick it up for him.  It was in very bad shape.  Basically it was a basket case with parts missing and other parts unusable.  Dented and broken.  Things needed welding and fabrication.  We have had worse but because of his attachment, we took extra care to do a good job.  The attached picture shows the completed pump uopn delivery several weeks ago.  It was so nice to see the appreciation on Chris’ face and know that we were able to keep part of his Grandfather’s memory alive for years to come.

The fun part about this business is meeting interesting people and discovering things they have hidden away, awaiting restoration. This was the case about two months ago. We got a referral from one of our good customers. The lady who called mentioned that the family was in the oil business and that we had some of the same friends.  We met and I was pleasantly surprised by some very nice but very rough gas pumps. She wanted to have a pump for the office, so we took a 900 Series Gilbarco out of their collection to bring back to life. Years ago, the company was an Esso dealer. We opted to do that type of rework on the old pump. I think it turned out pretty good? Our customer seemed happy too!

Well, last night I recieved an email from a good friend who lives in Oklahoma.  It seems that he and his family were vacationing in London.  Not too shabby,huh, until he mentions that he was robbed and needs cash fast!!!  Could I please forward him money, through Western Union, so that he can get home?  Now he is a good friend and I’d do anything I could to help so I called his cell.  You’ll never guess where I caught up with him? He was feeding his cattle at home in Oklahoma!!! I asked how London was? He said that I should still send money but to just mail a check directly to him since that way he could scam the scammers!  He told me that these folks had even broken into his Facebook account and were talking….LIVE….to some of his friends locally? Boy, that takes a lot of nerve, don’t you think?  Just wanted to alarm the masses, so to speak. Be careful out there!

In a Febuary post I mentioned seeing the economy start to turn around.  In a restoration/retail business like ours, you see things slow way down in troubled times.  This year has been much better than last, to date.  I am doing a lot more custom restorations for clients along with all the pumps that we do for our online sales.  In speaking to some of our vendors, whom we count on for plating and parts, their work load has increased too.  It’s been three years since the bottom dropped out of the economy, as we had grown to know it.  I for one am glad for the improvement.

We just linked our site with our friends at Man Cave Signs.com in Phoenix, Arizona.  Please have a look.  Wayne does a really good job on sign design and build.  He is a class act.

I had the opportunity, this past weekend, to fly out of BWI Airport on my way to Texas. As I was waiting for my flight, I was seated at the gate. I am one who likes to people watch. Very interesting way to pass time. I noticed several servicemen and women arriving. All were dressed alike in camo fatiques. All were Air Force, of which I was a veteran of the Vietnam Era. I was truely impressed with these people. All were not young. I spoke to a few and found a new Grand Father among them. All were heading overseas for another tour. Most had been there several times before. These folks were polite. They were pleasant to be around. All were driven by a sense of doing the correct thing in a difficult time. The stories I heard were of personal challenges. But all in all, they were where they felt the most needed.  These were some of Americas’ Best and should be applauded at every opportunity.

As some of you know, by reading this blog, I recently returned from the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction in Scottsdale, Az.  What I noticed is that the economy all across this country is slowly recovering somewhat.  It will take some time but I saw people out and traveling.  Last year there was very little of that.  I also saw the attitudes of folks being more positive about all things in general.  That was very encouraging…..Seems as though people are coming out of the dark into the sunlight!  What a wonderful thing to see!

I spent the better part of this month in Scottsdale, Az. working at the Barrett Jackson Car Auction. It was the Fortieth anniversary of this auction. Quite a feat if you consider the longevity of todays’ businesses? The attendance was up considerably from last year. Car prices seemed to be stronger too. Perhaps the economy is coming around again? I certainly hope that is the case? The public supported our items and all in all, I feel we did well. The weather was 74-78 daily with no rain. Truely beautiful and made me sorry to have to leave. Got home in time to shovel away 8 inches of newly fallen snow!  This is a must attend for the car enthusiast. Unbelievable autos, trucks,oddities,gas/oil items…..list is too long to mention…Great Fun though!! Here are some pictures of our display.

It’s the time of year when we take a trip to the Barrett Jackson Auction in Arizona. My cell is on if anyone needs to chat? As always, the shop is staffed. Talk to you soon, Paul