(photo source Diana Jules on facebook)
Tow truck via Pat O’Connell….
Santa courtesy of kindness, fun and imagination.
(photo source www.darnton.ws/~Pat_O’Connell)
“Pat owned three different service stations in the LA area, the last one being a Mobil station on the corner of Slauson and La Brea in Inglewood, CA. He was looking to leave because, frankly, he was sick of LA and thought there must be a better place to live and raise kids. Try to remember (those of you who were here at the time) what LA was like in the early ’60′s: most days the smog was so bad you could barely see one block, and breathing was a life-threatening experience. Only we older guys know: it’s actually a LOT better now.
Pat researched opportunities as far away as the Four Corners area and was close to making an offer on a station in Kaibab, AZ, north of the Grand Canyon, when he learned that the average snowfall there in winter is eight feet. This put him off, so he kept looking, with a preference for mountainous areas. He found what he wanted in Three Rivers, which, if you look on a map (or Google Earth) is about the same size as Kaibab, and I mean small. He and his wife sold the Inglewood station in 1964 and came the 225 miles north to move into a house on the property that was built in 1946. His wife died in 2005 after a long battle with cancer, and Pat has carried on alone. He told me that he never realized until after she died how much work women do to keep a house!” via the Darton Family Website
Pat O’Connell’s service station circa 2005
Pat O’Connell retired from his towing service in 2008…
read article in Kaweah Commonwealth.
