Esso

About this location

A few stories people tell about this place

1. At dawn, when most gas stations are quiet and empty, a delivery driver noticed an old man sitting on a bench outside Esso. He waved cheerfully every time a car pulled up for fuel. Curious, the driver approached him and asked if he needed help. The old man smiled and replied, 'Just waiting for my car to arrive.' Turned out his car was parked inside, fully fueled—and so was everyone else's in the neighborhood! It seemed our friendly neighbor had been filling up cars while they slept, leaving them with full tanks and warm fuzzy feelings.

2. At closing time, an Esso attendant locked up the station and walked home. Next morning he found that someone had written on the gas pump: ‘Fill me up with one gallon of gasoline… for tomorrow.’ The attendant shrugged it off as a prank until his supervisor noticed the same message appeared every day. They decided to humor it—until one morning they found the tank filled exactly to one gallon. From then on, whenever anyone asked why there was always just enough gas in the tank, the crew would smile and say, 'It’s magic!'

3. One night, while filling up at Esso, a little boy pointed excitedly at something on the pump. ‘Mom,’ he whispered, ‘look! The gas is winking back at us!’ His mom smiled and leaned down to whisper back, ‘Oh honey, that’s just the reflection of our headlights in the glass.’ A delivery driver overheard them and laughed, saying, ‘I’ve seen that trick hundreds of times—must be why they call it Ess-o!’

4. At midnight, when the streets of New York were silent, a delivery driver pulled into Esso for a quick fill-up. The only sound was the soft hum of the pumps—and then, from inside the station, came a strange, rhythmic beeping. Curious, he peered through the window. There sat an old cash register, its ancient mechanism clicking away as if counting money nobody had ever spent. As he watched, the old machine seemed to tally up an endless stream of zeros and ones—until suddenly, it stopped. A voice behind him said, ‘That’ll be twenty bucks.’ Startled, our hero turned around to see an elderly gentleman smiling warmly. ‘Don’t worry,’ the man added, ‘I’m just the night janitor. Thought I’d give you a little scare!’