Valero

About this location

A few stories people tell about this place

1. At night, when Valero’s pumps hummed softly, a strange melody wafted from the storage tanks. A delivery driver first noticed it—a gentle, rhythmic tune that seemed to change with each fill-up. Curious, he asked around, and soon everyone in town was listening for the music too. Turns out, an old radio had been left inside one of the tanks during construction. As gas flowed through its wires, it played soft jazz tunes at night. The town embraced their new tradition—everyone gathered near Valero to dance and chat while filling up their cars. Even the local cat, a regular visitor, learned to tap his paws along.

2. Late one afternoon, as a little girl walked past Valero with her mother, she stopped abruptly and pointed up at the gas pump. ‘Mommy,’ she whispered, ‘why is that pump smiling at us?’ Her mom looked up and saw nothing but a plain old gas pump. ‘Honey, it’s just the reflection of the sun,’ she said gently. The little girl nodded thoughtfully, then turned back to her mom and asked, ‘So why does the sun smile at us?’

3. In the early morning hours, when Valero’s pumps were the only sound on the street, an old man would emerge from the shadows and whisper into the air. Nobody knew what he said or why he did it, but soon after, customers started reporting seeing strange lights in the sky. One night, a delivery driver noticed the flickering lights and pulled over curiously. As he approached the gas station, the old man turned around with twinkling eyes and asked, 'Seen enough?' The driver nodded, smiling. ‘That’ll be ten dollars,’ chuckled the old man, pointing at the pump. The driver paid up, shook his head, and drove off—never mentioning that he’d just paid for a once-in-a-lifetime show.

4. Late one evening, while Valero’s pumps glowed dimly in the twilight, an old delivery driver pulled up and noticed something odd. The gas station sign seemed to flicker between two different messages—first flashing ‘Open,’ then mysteriously switching to read ‘Closed.’ He shook it off, thinking maybe it was just his tired eyes playing tricks. Curious, he stepped inside, only to find the place empty but for a friendly old cat dozing by the cash register. The cat lazily opened one eye, yawned, stretched, and walked over to greet him. Turns out, Valero had been closed for years, run by that same sleepy feline ever since.