Filling Station Summary

The speaker describes a derelict filling station. It is dirty and so covered in oil that one would have to be careful using matches inside it. The speaker then describes the family at the station—the owners or caretakers of the place. The father wears a dirty, too-tight uniform, and his sons, who help him, are also dirty and unpleasant-looking. The speaker wonders if the father and sons all live in the filling station. Behind the gas pumps, the station has a cement porch and wicker furniture, all oily and damaged. A comfortable-looking dog is sitting on the couch. The only bright colors come from comic books, which are sitting on a doily—itself resting on a taboret (a stool or table) from the wicker set. The whole assemblage rests next to a begonia plant. The speaker wonders why any of it is there: the begonia, the taboret, or the doily, which is embroidered with a pattern of daisies on a heavy gray crocheted background. Somebody, the speaker realizes, has embroidered the doily and watered the begonia (maybe with oil). And somebody has lined up rows of oilcans, which have the brand name "Esso" written upon them, so that the word "-so" can be seen repeating itself in a pattern. Someone, the speaker concludes, has acted out of love towards everybody around them in order to create these things.