Mast Esso

In 1903, founded the Ford Motor Company. Some brave driver drove acoss the USA from coast to coast, a trip that took 65 days. In 1908, Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T. Becoming aware of the motor car popularity, investors formed General Motors Corp. By 1913, with the demand for motor cars sparking Henry Ford’s productive instincts, he pioneered new assembly line techniques in the Ford factory. Americans got in the habit of driving cars and trucks all over the country. Gas stations were established on strategic roads, street corners and highways. In 1942, Standard Oil of New Jersey constructed an oil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the east bank of the Mississippi River.

After a period of my early youth in Jackson, Mississippi, my parents moved us back to their hometown, Baton Rouge in 1963. As it happened, we occupied an old house that my mother had lived in back in her youth, located two blocks from the Standard Oil refinery. My teen years were spent living in that old house, just a stone’s throw from the Esso refinery. It seemed that the people of north Baton Rouge grew up in the shadow of that gargantuan oil refinery. My dad once told me that, back in the day, there wasn’t a valve wheel turned in the Esso plant unless “Red” Rowland, my grandfather, gave the order to turn it. Louisiana Governor Huey Long turned the wheels of politics to get Louisiana State University built in Baton Rouge, on the east side of the river , a few miles downriver from the Esso refinery. Now, in 2026, fifty-three years after my graduation from LSU, My daughter and I wander, on a Saturday afternoon, through grassy fields and overhanging trees, on the bank of the Watauga River, in the small Appalachian community of Valle Crucis, North Carolina, about a 20 minute drive from where Pat and I live in Boone. Our walk ends at the Mast Country Store, an historic landmark that has been preserved, and is still operated by the present owners, John and Faye Cooper, who purchased it in1979. They have maintained that ole-style country store. They operate it authentically, as it was back in the days of the ole country stores. An ancient US Post Office is inside on the left when you walk in. Just pass that, you can grab a Coca-Cola, ice-cold, from the old cooler. The old wooden f/oors are creaky. But hey, look at this, ma! Can I have one of those? Maybe a BabyRuth bar, or some bubble gum. Maybe you’ll get luck and get a Babe Ruth card! You can get anything you want there, just amble past the local honey, with the comb still in the jars. . . local history books, precious mementos from long ago. You can see pictures of old products on the walls. . . Chesterfield cigarette packets, Lucky Strike. It’s like stepping into the past, like Dorothy waking up in Oz and being told: “You’re not in Kansas anymore!”. . . well maybe a small community store out there on the prairie??

Kim, a tarheel photojournalist trained at the University of North Carolina, snapped this an image on her iphone for me. It represents days of a time long, long ago. . .

. . . when local grocers sold their goods independently of chain stores, operating as a true country store; they offered for purchase just about anything that a rural family might need. . .grits and groceries, dry goods, canned fruits and vegetables, local produce, work-clothes, jeans, and lots of thing that you wouln’t even think of until caught sight of them. . . motor oil. After your visit, maybe Mr. Mast will pump your tank full of Esso gasoline, maybe check you oil stick. You can see here that the gasoline was provided by Esso, the Standard Oil Company, maybe all the way from that Esso plant where my grandfather spun the valves. Seeing that old Esso logo brought to my memory the Esso plant in Baton Rouge. Who knows, maybe the gas that was pumped there, back in the day, had been pumped into a tanker through a valve that my grandfather opened. Who knows how many miles American drivers have driven since Henry Ford sent his Model T’s out of the factory? And who knows how many carbon emissions have ascended into our atmosphere while we drive from coast to coast and everywhere in between? Where’s Al Gore when you need him? Glass half-Full