Incident at an French Gas Station

 

“ We’re almost out of gas! The red light is blinking! She said.  

“I’m sure there is a gas station close by,” I said, adding, “I’m sure that Renaults get good gas mileage.” We were in the suburbs of Avignon, France, a few kilometers from Eyragues where we were staying.

“We’d better find one soon,” she said with a hint of panic in her voice. Claudette was doing all the driving while we were in France. I had unfortunately misplaced my wallet somewhere in Paris and it was not to be found. 

“There’s one on the left up ahead,” I announced. I saw a sigh of relief on my wife’s face. We made a quick exit off the street to find a gas station consisting of two stand alone gas pumps and a carwash. There was no attendant in sight. Indeed no 7 Eleven either. 

She was out of the car and at the pump before I could get my shoes on. (If I'm not driving, I slip my shoes off.) She was inserting  the Visa card into the gas pump by the time I got out of the car. 

“It doesn’t work," she said, “It won’t take my credit card.”

“What do you mean, it won’t take the credit card?” I wanted to know. 

“I know it worked on the toll road…I’ll try a different card,” she said with a certain amount of stress in her voice.and from the abundance of her purse sprang perhaps the plastic savior.

“Oh no-o-o, it doesn’t work either!” She said and I volunteered to try my hand. She gave me the card and I tried every conceivable way to get the machine to acknowledge our wants and desires. I did not succeed. 

While I was attempting to solve the problem, Claudette had spied a Frenchman. He was apparently at the location to maintain the carwash. Neither the carwash nor the gas station were staffed by the attendents. She was gesturing to him and speaking in broken French as they approached me at the gas pumps. 

He was a tall rangy fellow of maybe fifty years or so. He wore dirty work clothes and had gray stubble on his weathered face. He looked a lot like Jean Reno, the actor.  There was a somewhat bewildered look on his face. I held a credit card in my hend and mimicked putting it into the gas pump. He looked at me quizzically as I shook my head. Against my better judgement, I gave him the card and held up ten fingers meaning I wanted ten liters of gasoline. The Frenchman entered the card in the slot and pushed it. His hand moved so very slow as the plastic card made its way into the gas pump. It seemed to have taken forever. I held my breath! He pushed some buttons on the pump…but nothing happened. The card and it did not work for him either. He looked perplexed and examined the card carefully before returning it to me. We had to try something different. Somehow I managed to get the carwash repairman to use his own credit card to put gasoline in our rented Renault.  I think it was my pantomime skills! He bought us €20 of gasoline! I gave him €25, I thought it was worth a €5 “tip”.

We never determined why the Visa card worked sporadically. We frequently are asked if the French are rude and crude. But we’ve always found them to be friendly and very helpful.  Maybe  not being rude, they’re just reflecting how they are being treated. 

The Jack Russells of General Motors

Back in the early 1960s there was a group of engineers a General Motors that got to make their dreams come true. These were like the Jack Russell Terriers of the automotive engineers. They were the guys that were always wanting to try something different. In kindergarten they probably didn’t color inside the lines! And some things never change.In the early 60s their time had come. There were many unusual buzz words such as rear-engined, turbocharged, overhead cam, air-cooled, and transaxle. At this time Ford Motor Company had introduced the Falcon and Chrysler the Valiant as their small cars. Both were fairly conventional except for size although the Chrysler product did have a slant six engine. Chevrolet had introduced the true radical design for American automobiles, the Corvair. It was a rear-engined car with the engine air-cooled. Yes, there were similarities to the Volkswagen. The flat six cylinder engine produced 80 horsepower initially with up to 180 horsepower in later Spyder models. The models with turbochargers were rather quick and as well although not with a compact like the Corvair. The car would be the F-85, a smaller Olds. It had a variety of engines including an 215 cubic inch displacement aluminum V-8. The Jetfire version sported a turbocharger no doubt borrowed from Corvair Spyder. The engine developed a staggering 215 horsepower, one horsepower per cubic inch! Only the Chrysler 300 had achieved this before. And it could be coupled with a four speed manual transmission. Hardly

grandma’s grocery getter. However, performance was not without problems. The turbocharger tended to overheat. Pontiac Division got into the act with the Tempest. A small car comparable to the Oldsmobile F-85. John Z. DeLorean whose name would become synonymous with Pontiac performance was in chargof development. Due to budgetary constraints DeLorean chose to cut a V-8 engine in half to produce an economical four cylinder engine. The car also had an

innovative curved drive shaft coupled the a two speed automatic transaxle. The Tempest would eventually grow into the legendary GTO. Buick added its Special to the mix being the first production automobile with a standard V-6 engine. While the original versions were rather docile, the later models would morph into the Buick Grand National powered by a 500 horsepower turbocharged V-6. Like Ford’s Model T the car came in only one color, black. It was said to be the fasted

production automobile manufactured in America at that time.

And so it that American car fanciers witnessed four of the most innovative automobiles developed by the American automobile industry.

The Moth that Hovers

We were staying at a hotel about five miles from St Remy-de-Provence in the south of France when I saw it. I was sitting at a small table having afternoon tea when I saw this creature for the first time. The plantings beside the patio were of rosemary, thyme and other herb, with a smattering of flowering plants as well. I thought at first it was a hummingbird. The antennae were the major clue that it was not a hummingbird although it “hummed” like the bird. Its wings beat seventy times per second producing the sound as well as movement, that is flight. And it can fly sideways. Unlike other moths, it flies in daylight.

I was seeing a rare creature for sure, a hummingbird hawk-moth. It is amazing how God made some creatures with a survival mechanism or if you prefer that they evolved with certain characteristics as Darwin would have said. This moth is an insect that appears to be a bird. And that characteristic helps it escape the insect feeders of nature. Its tiny wings (wingspan of about two inches) appear almost invisible as it hovers near a flower. There are actually two pair of wings! It is quite an amazing creature which feeds on the nectar of flowers. When not flying the moth’s camouflage is complete as its color  blends perfectly with tree bark. It does have discriminatory tastes and determines particular flowers by color. It uses a beak-like drinking straw which uncurls to suck out the nectar. This “drinking straw” can be an inch long or as long as one on the hummingbird hawk-moth’s wings. Once the hummingbird hawk-moth discovers a favorite feeding spot it may return to it daily at a preferred time! The honeysuckle being one of its favorites. As a boy I enjoyed the sweetness from the honeysuckle blossom. 

They hatch from eggs as green worms with white stripes. These larvae consume leaves of the plant which held the eggs of the moth. When it reaches a certain size it becomes encased in a silken cocoon. The metamorphosis takes place a the moth emerges and feasts on the leaves of it’s birthplace. The moth will live three weeks to seven months feeding on flowers and pollinating them.

My initial response that I was seeing something other than a hummingbird was correct since hummingbirds exist only in the Americas.

What Now for American Education?

What I’m about to talk about is important to all Americans.  About their children or grandchildren. They are the future of our country.

We, in the United States of America, enjoy the highest standard of living in the world.. We have the highest standard for a number of reasons. Abundant natural resources and a multi-ethnic people living under a government that promotes personal freedom. These were the people who placed men on the moon, split the atom and invented the supercomputer. And many other products and services that we enjoy today. 

But one factor behind this success is the education of its children. At the turn of the 20th century emphasis was placed on education. At least eleven years of public education. This was soon increased to twelve years. Out of this system came hundreds of well educated factory workers, tradesmen and professionals. During the 1960s emphasis was placed on mathematics and science in our public schools. This was primarily due to the Space Race the USA had entered with the  USSR. A bold American president said we would put a man on the moon in a decade, and we did.  The result of this goal culminated in tremendous advances in technology and the invention of new materials and processes. 

During the Clinton administration the Department of Education was created.  Later the federal government instituted programs such as the ”No Child Left Behind Program'' in the Geo. W. Bush administration. The intent to improve was a failure.  Later during the Obama administration the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed. Although it was designed to stimulate a poor economy, it provided millions of dollars for education. The “Race For The Top'' initiative provided $4.35 million for certain educational programs. These were normally referred to as “Common Core”. The idea was to have a national standard for education. This program was not endorsed by educators or students’ parents.  This did little to slow the slide to education mediocrity. Perhaps the only positive response to Common Core was the interest sparked among normally disinterested parents 

One of the major factors contributing to a substandard American education system is the lack of interest of parents in their children’s education. During the school shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic parental interest in education increased considerably. Now such organizations as Moms for Liberty are demanding accountability from local education systems. Although millions of dollars has been funneled from the federal government, state and local governments, very little has found its way into a teacher’s paycheck. Average teacher pay is $62,304. There is a scarcity of qualified teachers. It should be noted that teachers’ unions are all about teacher benefits and not about the quality of instruction. 

There is an interesting fact concerning money for education. It seems that with the more money given to education, the better the letter grades students receive. Interestingly, scores on national tests indicate that as more money is given to education and student grades are higher, the actual learning decreases. According to a Business Insider report in 2018 the U.S. ranked 38th in math and 24th in science. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly referred to as “America’s Report Card”,  measures students' knowledge in key subjects—math, reading, history, science,and more. The NAEP results echoes the same findings. 

But now our education system is deteriorating. There is no longer an emphasis on the curricula that produces mathematicians, scientists and engineers. And our place as a world leader is 

diminishing. But it’s not too late to reverse the trend. 

There was something about Freddie, and the written word is useless as a method of explanation. Freddie* was an extraordinary storyteller. I believe that everyone is a storyteller. You may take issue with that statement, but let me explain. We humans communicate primarily with words. We talk. Words form sentences, and sentences are the way we communicate our thoughts. These thoughts are stories. If you are giving instructions  or a description, or a verbal reprimand,  all are  stories. 

Freddie spoke with a midwestern accent, the kind newscasters have. His diction was neither fast or slow, and I’m sure that if we measured his rate of speech it would have been one hundred sixty words per minute. That’s the same rate of speech as Walter Cronkite. Freddie was animated when he spoke. Being slightly less than six feet tall and with what Barney Fife called a sinewy body/   His movements were quick and cat-like. A  tattoo of the word “Screech” was on his left arm. We thought it was probably a nickname regarding his appearance. His hair was jet black and he could grow a five o’clock shadow by ten in the morning. He wore heavy looking black rimmed glasses with  lenses that made his eyes appear larger. We surmised that it made his face look like that of an owl. A screech owl! 

The stories Freddie would tell were not extremely unusual. Many concerned growing up in a small town or nautical stories from his time in the U.S. Navy. But his delivery surely was unusual. He produced sounds to illustrate his words. If he described someone leaving hurriedly, the statement would be followed by a “whoosh”!  The sounds of “whish, whoosh, bang, pow, gr-r-r, boing, whew, tick-tick,” and others would accent his words. To say his stories were entertaining was quite an understatement!

The effect is not one that can be reproduced in print.

We recently met Freddie for lunch and sadly noticed the lack of “whooshes, pows, and bangs”  in his speech. The years had rendered Jerry’s colorful language  black and white.

*not