High School brought the dreaded driving (for parents anyway), Pete inherited the family’s 1953 Dodge station wagon with a Hemi V8!  Funny thing it burned gas...  Pete had a friend that had a friend that owned a Chevron Service Station.

Pete worked part time after school and weekends at Bianchi’s Chevron, at the corner of State and Los Positas Road (there is garden sales on that spot now).  With training he learned to pump gas, wash windows, check air, oil, and water (and this was all included for $0.25 a gallon for Regular , Ethyl was more and 105 octane Super was 31 cents a gallon).

He also learned how to lubricate “zirk” fittings, change oil, filters (the spin on filter was just coming out),  change, mount and unmount tires, generators (yes, the alternator had not been installed on cars yet), not to mix a 6 volt system positive ground with a 12 volt and lots of other automotive things. John Bianchi was a great teacher  and his sons Jack and Paul also worked at the station.

Another part of the job was waiting on the local characters, making change or recording sales on a new thing called a credit card, and issuing Gold stamps or whatever promotional item of the week (glasses, mugs, etc.).

One local customer that Pete would see for years at other jobs was Emil De Loreto. Emil owned the property that John Bianchi’s station was leasing and built a strip mall adjacent.  He was so upset with people leaving their cars for days on his property that he would take his old pickup and push them onto State Street so the city police would have to tow them.

Pete’s high school friend Gary Matz worked at the station too. One day Gary’s sister, Cheryl, ran up to Pete in the lube bay to say that Gary had caught his hand under the dash of his Ford Station Wagon, a little grease and proper pulling removed it. Don’t know if the burned out dash bulb was ever replaced or not.

Another job during High School was working on the Stage Crew for money.  Various organizations would rent the San Marcos stage (the newest and finest in Santa Barbara at that time) and Pete would be part of the Sound and Lighting rented too. Gary also worked at the stage. We were exposed to several different groups while doing this work.  A speech from Richard Nixon (think he was governor at that time), show of magic from local magicians, and a rally for the John Birch Society were a few  that Pete remembers.

Pete also did some PA (public address system) jobs using some speakers that he bought from Paul Thomsen when he closed his TV business.  The dedication of the lot for the Salvation Army’s new facility on Hollister Avenue and Pete’s High School Graduation were two jobs he remembers.