With closing of Jackson’s, only 2 full-service stations remain in York County

One straight-8 and wheel-dinging gas pump at a time, the America that the young and brash and fast and wild once sang about is dying.

Since World War II, at the corner of East Main Street and Anderson Road in Rock Hill, somebody named Jackson has pumped gasoline into hot-rodded deuce coupes and mammoth deuce-and-a-quarters and muscle car GTOs and hippie VW vans and tiny Toyotas.

But no more.

Jackson’s Service “filling” station – a Rock Hill landmark with its curved glass windows straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting – is now closed for good.

Another full-service station that symbolized the car-loving freedom and greatness of a country – with an employee filling the tank, and wiping the windshield and checking the oil – is gone.

“We aren’t going to open it back up again,” said Manuel Jackson, son of owner Carl Jackson. “The tanks were pumped out and it’s over.

“No gas in the tanks. It’s the end of an era.”

Carl Jackson, 81, who for 67 years worked at the station his father built, was robbed and beaten in two robberies in late 2012 and early 2013. The culprits were never caught. His failing health – Carl was recently hospitalized again – meant the end, his son said.

Also, Jackson had been selling gasoline at a loss to compete with huge self-serve retailers that make their money not from gasoline, but the products sold inside the stores. Beer, cigarettes, soft drinks and snacks – that’s where the money’s at in an America that wants convenience and shuns big cars with big motors that guzzle gas.

“My daddy thought so much of his customers that he was selling gas at a loss to try and keep them,” Manuel Jackson said.

In the fast-paced world of self-service and pay-at-the-pump, with people unwilling to stop and talk a minute, a world where electric cars that bore people stiff are the future, just a couple of places in York County still offer full service at the pump.

‘Hot Rod Prius?’

Killian’s Service Center in Clover, an iconic service station just east of downtown on S.C. 55 for almost 70 years, continues to offer full service. The late Lee “Cooter” Killian Sr., who died in January at age 88, always offered full service, and his sons Lee Jr. and Dan still offer full service despite making just pennies on the sale of gasoline.

Killian’s is still a hangout for many who want to talk about football and politics and everything else. Some customers still want to pull up and be asked the question that used to be part of the American language across the nation: “Fill ’er up?”

Anybody might have heard the song “Hot Rod Lincoln” while waiting for gasoline at Jackson’s or Killian’s.

Nobody ever heard a song about a “Hot Rod Prius” while waiting for a yuppie to get off the cell phone at a mega-chain gas station/store with 24 pumps and lattes.

“Business has changed over the years, but we still have loyal customers who come for the service,” Lee Killian Jr. said. “The chains, even the small independents that have convenience stores, they make money off what is sold inside the store. We don’t have a store. We have the gasoline, and the service station inside.”

Killian’s still offers repair services and the basics such as oil changes, wiper blades, tire repairs – the kind of service that was a hallmark of the “service station.” Regular customers know the Killian men and the Killians know their customers.

When Carl Jackson was running his station for all those years, he offered the same services – oil changes, brakes, fixing tires.

“The last few months, Daddy did a few oil changes, fixed a few tires, but even now that is over,” Manuel Jackson said. “A way of life is gone.”

‘Harder to make a dollar’

The three-pump island at Workman’s Oil & Wrecker Service at the corner of Saluda and Johnston streets just south of downtown Rock Hill appears to be the last full-service island left in the city. The business has tow trucks and a repair shop. There is a self-service island, just like there is everywhere else.

And the full-service pump with three grades of gasoline.

Butch Workman has run the station since 1978.

“It gets harder and harder to make a dollar, but this is the way we have always done it,” he said. “Customer service.”

The words “thank you” ring out there at Workman’s, too.

At places such as Workman’s and Killian’s, a handshake is a still deal. That is the way it was always done at Jackson’s Service Center, too. Carl Jackson would be in the oil pit or fixing a tire and a car would drive over the rubber hose with the bell on it meaning somebody was at the gas pump.

Jackson kept a ledger of his customers in his pocket. The pumps were not electronic, but had those wheeled numbers that ding when the gallons are pumped. Jackson, like the Killians and the Workmans, took pride in helping people.

Jackson billed regulars by the month, if that was easier for them. He never worried if he would get paid. He always thanked customers and asked them to come back.

And at the end, trying to compete with several “filling” stations between his place and nearby Interstate 77’s Exit 77, Jackson sold gas so low, it cost him the money he had worked for all his life.

“My father was one of the last ones anywhere to pump a customer’s gas, to give that service,” Manuel Jackson said. “And now that it is gone, it won’t ever come back.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2014 at 11:05 PM with the headline "With closing of Jackson’s, only 2 full-service stations remain in York County."