Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    I seem to always need to tank up on the way to work, when I don't
    want to risk smelling like a molotov cocktail.  I have no squeamish
    objection, and have pumped my own many times when it was more
    convenient (or necessary) to do so.
    
    						=maggie

    Oooops!  Thanks for reminding me.  I'm low, so I'll be pumping
    some gas at the corner tonight.  But (she added demurely) I'm
    not really a lady, so perhaps you weren't asking about me?
    
    							Ann B.  :-)

    RE: .0
    
    	I not only pump my own gas, but I change my own oil too!
    And I've been known to fix carburators and such.
    
    Am I a real todays woman or WHAT!?

    when my SO isn't there, of course I pump gas.
    
    When he is, he pumps the gas and
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    (surprise)
    
    I take the spongee/squeegee thing and wash the windshields, windows,
    and scrape the burdturds off the car (assigned parking under trees)
    
    
-Jody
    

     Since self-service is 10 to 30 cents a gallon cheaper, I always
     pump my own.  The only exceptions are when the tank has fallen
     below the red line and there is only full-service, or when it's
     very very late and I don't want to get out of the car.

    depends on weather, my mood, and the state of my pocketbook as compared
    to the state of my gas tank.
    Lee

    I don't usually pump my own gas -- but that's only because I'm lazy,
    not that I'm morally opposed to it!  ;^)
    
    SM
    

    No, no, no, Kerry.  Women are told over and over again "DON'T
    GET OUT OF YOUR CAR IN A BAD OR UNFAMILIAR NEIGHBORHOOD AFTER
    DARK."  If she does, and something bad happens, then she was
    `asking for it'.  Well, we've heard that before, so if you want
    discussion on it, read that topic in here.
    
    Here's a bit of irony:  The Police Authority explaining Safety
    for Women says, ~Always check the back seat before you get into
    your cars, always drive with your doors locked and your windows
    rolled up, [statement from first paragraph], never stop to help
    anyone, drive away at the first sign of a problem, blah, blah,
    blah.  -- But never slip into paranoid thinking.~  Can you say,
    "Mixed messages"?
    
    Quick poll:  Any male-type guys reading this file who have found
    themselves lowish on gas in places and at times when they didn't
    want to get out of their cars?
    
    							Ann B.

	Hmmm, the first time I ever used a self-serve pump I didn't
	know to flip the lever, my date showed me how!
	
	Re: Ann's poll: Yep! If it makes you feel any better, Mr.
	Manners, fatigue, laziness, and lousy weather are also
	possible reasons to not want to get out of the car...
	
	Mike

    When riding a motorcycle, yuh gotta pump your own.
    
    Then yuh pay the attendant and he says "Thanks, son"
    
    Dawn
    

    
    Pumping my own is a disgusting chore and your hands get
    smelly...
    I prefer to have it pumped for me.

        As I have mentioned here before, it is an important part of my
        outlook on life that I adamantly refuse to be motivated by fear.
        This is quite different from saying I'm never afraid, so in
        answer to Ann's question, yes, there have been times and places
        where I have been nervous or afraid of stop for or getting out
        of my car for gas, but, no, there are are no times when I didn't
        stop and didn't get out.
        
        The fear is realistic for both men and for women. It is also
        prudent for both sexes to exercise caution in when and where
        they stop[ and get out of their cars. Refusing to admit the fear
        is unrealistic. Giving in to it surrenders autonomy. Personally,
        I'm determined not to give in to fears such as these. This may
        be unwise, and I don't necessarily recommend others follow my
        lead. 
        
        JimB.

    I don't mind pumping my own gas (unless I am dressed up or the weather
    is lousy), but in this town, self-service gas stations are ILLEGAL!
    So, I don't do it very often - not worth driving several miles out
    of the way.
    
    (I live in Hudson, MA, about six blocks from HLO, where I work.)
    
    /Charlotte

    re .12 &c.
    
    Too late, Kerry, you're already met me. In general, no, I don't pump my
    own gas. Why? 
    
    (1) I'm a lazy bastard.
    
    (2) There's a station near where I live that pumps it for you for free. 
    
    (3) Gas on my hands makes me sneeze. This is an okay excuse. See (1)
    above. 
    
    (4) There's a neat medical survey that says gasoline causes cancer.
    This a great excuse. See (1) above.

    It never occurred to me to be scared to get out of my car. I'm in a
    hurry, or feeling like a cheapskate, I'll pump it myself. But, hey,
    JimB calls me a sissy, so what do I know. ;-) 
    
    	Jon

    Once upon a time (1/T, as I recently read somewhere) I would always
    go to they-pump-it-for-you stations.  My kids were babies and tended
    to cry if I got out of the car.  I appreciated the service.
    
    Nowaday, I go to I-pump-it-for-them stations.  My kids are big
    and noisy and I'd just as soon escape for a couple of minutes.
    Besides, I can use the money.
    
    Except if I need gas in Brookline, NH, on my way to work.  Then
    I patronize Corey at Corey's Mobil.  He's fun to tease, and he also
    does my car inspections.

    What else does Corey do for you Dotsie?

    Yes, I've been unwilling to get out of the car and pump my own...
    living in New Jersey where self-service gas doesn't exist (and where
    gas prices are normally $.05 to $.10 *less* than elsewhere -- RATHOLE
    ALERT...).
    
    Kerry, you are going to meet me.

    not for a million bucks!!!!!
    
    
    maybe 1.2 million!!
    

    Input from the UK.....
    
    Most Petrol (=Gas) stations over here are self-service.  I have
    always put my own petrol in (=pumped my own gas).  If I get smelly
    hands I wash them ;-)
    
    There is one self-service station in about a 15 miles radius (for
    info to Reading people: Barkham Hill Garage).  If I go there I usually
    get out of the car and talk the guy who's fills up the car, why?
    Because I can't stand arrogant people who sit in their cars and order
    the guy about (different in the US).
    
    For the poll:: It would cross my mind whether to get out of the
    car late at night to fill up or not, but our stations are usually
    very well lit and 'open', and besides the 'old bill' (The Police)
    are usually lurking behind the cars for sale on the forecourt in 
    their Panda Car (Patrol Car) waiting for someone speed past(?) 
    the station,they can then pull out and 'give chase' = POLICE SPEND
    TOO MUCH TIME CHASING MOTORISTS WHO ARE BREAKING THE SPEED LIMIT 
    INSTEAD OF TACKLING THE PROBLEM THAT MAKES ME THINK TWICE ABOUT 
    GETTING OUT OF THE CAR 8-} 
    
    Janice

    Pumping gas,changing tires and housework. I hate them all. I do
    them all. As soon as I can afford it, I'll never do them again.
    liesl

    Re Ann's survey: 
    
    The car I drive gives absolutely no protection: I drive a soft top Jeep
    CJ-7, it has canvas doors which do not lock and plastic windows fastened
    with a zipper. In any event the "safe zone" feeling of being in a locked
    car is largely misleading against a determined assailant.
    
    However as I have said elsewhere I have a high "alert factor", especially
    at night. I'll choose a well lit open forecourt station, as that makes
    it easy to check on people approaching me. I'll also carefully check
    the place over before switching off the motor and getting out of the
    vehicle. *HOWEVER* I feel safer pumping my own gas with nobody near
    me than allowing a stranger to approach and have me open a window (to
    pay) whilst they force me to immobilise my vehicle (by stopping the
    motor) when they are so close. A spanner will smash a car window and
    if threatened by firearms neither the glass nor the metal will slow
    down a bullet enough to save me from serious injury or worse.
    
    /. Ian .\

I pump my own gas most of the time, because the gas station I stop at most
of the time (the most convenient one) is a pump-your-own station.  If for some
reason I need to get gas elsewhere, I don't search for a pump-your-own station.
I am usually not dressed up, but I have occasionally pumped my own while wearing
nicer clothing  (maybe not in the new silk dress I bought :-)).

My fiance almost always goes to a pump-your-own station.  Unlike me, he will
wait until he has less than .5 gallon left before seeking out more gas.  Why
go more often than you have to? :-)  He has put over 18 gallons in a tank
that is supposed to hold 17.9 gallons.  For this reason, when he needs gas, he
NEEDS gas.  His new car has been full-served twice in its life, the first time
in NJ which, as was previously stated, has laws against self-serve.  The last
time he was desperate.   He asked the attendant to fill it up.  The attendant
let it click off, and rounded it up to $10.  Bill argued that it could not
possibly be full, and asked him to please FILL it.  The attendant grudging
let it slowly go further...and further...and further...until it clicked off
again and was rounded up to an additional $7 more on the dial.  I can see why
Bill prefers to pump his own. :-)

While Bill pumps the gas, I've occasionally done the windows when they had the
necessary equipment available.  My official task, however, is to record the
data (price per gallon, purchase price, odometer reading, date, place of
purchase) on an official scrap of paper, for later entry into his MILES
program. :-)

Jill

(ps, for the infamous MILES program, send mail to me :-))

    I pump my own most of the time.  But what I want to know is, why
    don't self-service stations have a place you can wash your hands?
    The window-cleaning fluid just doesn't do the trick . . .
    
    I used to change my own oil and such.  Before that, when I had access
    to equipment and space, I overhauled my own engine.  My father,
    a mechanic, taught me well.  
    
    Thank God I now make enough money to pay someone else to do it for
    me.

    --bonnie

    
    IF I go to a service station that has attendants, they pump the
    gas, that is included in the price of gasoline.
    
    If you go to a restraunt do get your own food? maybe if there is
    a salad bar or if it is a buffet but not if it is like Cafe' Budapest.
    
    Why is it that pumping gas is something one should want to do and
    serving food is not?
    
    Why are we even trying to prove that we are acceptable individuals
    because we are willing to pump our own gas?  Who values are we
    trying to adjust to? and WHY?
    
    When I pay for service I expect to be serviced. 8^) (Yes that is
    a shit-eating grin.)
    
    _peggy
    		(-)
    		 |	The Goddess understands
    

    
    .24 - More UK input.  I've always filled my own tank, because 9
    times out 10 it's the only way to get it in there.  Even where there
    is an attendant, I've never paid more for the petrol. (We pay enough
    already!)
    
    .26 - You make the USA sound like an institute for the criminally
    insane.  Is it really that bad!  Somehow I think I'll stay here
    in Europe.
    
    SMILE PLEASE
    
    -S-

    
�    .26 - You make the USA sound like an institute for the criminally
�    insane.  Is it really that bad!  Somehow I think I'll stay here
�    in Europe.

     I didn't intend to: in my life I've been involved in several attempted
     muggings and broken up one attempted rape: one of the muggings was
     in New York City, the others where in Liverpool, Manchester or London.
     I don't perceive the Boston Combat Zone to any more threatening than
     Liverpool 8 (Toxteth of race riot fame, with 85% black unemployment
     and a mugging/rape rate higher per capita than any city in America). 
     I would lock my car doors and close the windows there too, and I'd run 
     a stop light with the tires smoking if a couple of the natives looked at 
     me sideways... (I grew up there so I *KNOW* those streets, I also had a 
     friend pulled out of her car thru the broken drivers door window and
     raped by five of the natives, because she wouldn't run a red light)
     
     In most places the dangers are slight, but caution is realistic in
     a dark lonely place. Most criminals are teenagers looking for money,
     often to buy drugs. Strangely enough most night forecourt attendants
     in gas stations are also teenagers looking for money, though most of
     them probably don't want it to buy drugs. When analysing a threat first
     analyse the threat profile: night forecourt attendants represent a
     high risk group for people alone in cars at night.
                                   
     So no, America isn't an open institute for the criminally insane, and
     nor am I being paranoid. I am careful, and more importantly I am alive
     (though not unscarred, after several knife wounds and one broken bottle
     laceration - all obtained in England where of course there aren't any
     handguns to protect ourselves with :-|).
     
     /. Ian .\

    
    .31 - Thankyou for reminding me that parts of the UK can be as bad
    as anywhere in the States.  But I'm not so sure about having a gun
    for protection.  After all, if you can go out and buy one, then
    so can the mugger/rapist/whatever.  What do you do ?  Try and beat
    him to the draw ? :-)   
    
    
    -S- 

        But face the facts... There are millions and millions of guns in
        the US today. That situation and thus the access to guns by
        muggers, rapists and whatevers can't be changed without measures
        which are unacceptable to American or English sensibilities. To
        get the guns out of criminal hands you'd have to seriously
        violate the rights of everyone to be secure in the person and
        their property from unreasonable searches.
        
        Guns are, and will be for the foreseeable future, a fact of
        American culture. The question is how will we deal with that
        fact? Confining them only into the hands of the lawless doesn't
        seem wise, somehow. Unreason dread ofthe tools of violence
        rather than of violent people isn't going to help either. 
        
        It is wise in every culture to be able to recognize those places
        and situations in which there is a real chance of danger, and to
        deal with them carefully. An urban gas station at night can be
        such a spot. A rural one can as well, though with less
        likelyhood unless you happen to fit very badly with the local
        prejudices. It doesn't help to see rapists behind every gas
        pump, but there are times when it helps to be prudent. 
        
        JimB.

    How to deal with guns in the hands of criminals ? *Learn
    to shoot well!* Most criminals have access to guns, but
    are NOT members of the local Fish and Game or Revolver
    clubs. An armed citizen has a responsibility to make sure 
    that his shots are on target and do not endanger bystanders.
    Practice and confidence prevail.

       Not only do I pump my own gas, but I also drive a TRUCK!  Imagine
    the sight of a woman getting out of a truck in a dress to pump her
    own gas.  My mother would have had a heart attack over a woman doing
    this.  Isn't evolution and equality GREAT?!!!  :)

    RE .35 - your comment about the truck reminded me of a gay friend
    I used to have who went out and bought herself a light blue pickup.
    Her other gay cronies teased her endlessly about her "butch baby
    blue truck". So no matter what social crowd you're in it's more
    important what you drive than who you are. :*) liesl

    I'm kinda curious about how this conversation got started.  So,
    what did happen to the base note?
    
    Let's see, if I'm driving the car, sometimes I pump, and sometimes
    I don't.  When it's time to get gas, if there's a self-serve around,
    then that's usually the first choice.  Of it the attendant is
    really busy, I'll help him out by pumping my own and giving him/her
    the correct change.
    
    If I'm driving the motorcycle, there's no question, and most
    attendants in the full-serve understand that they're to hand over
    the pump to me.
    
    Karen (if guns were against the law, would all the baddies give
    up theirs and stop buying them)

    re .37 
    the base note was one of the imfamous 'trash notes' that I
    believe said that 'real women don't pump gas'

    While at the MOBIL station this morning, I noticed a crudely written
    sign on the pump that betrayed the continuing subtle patriarchal
    overtones in our world...
    
             ' When finished, please move your car forward , think of
    the other "GUY"   '
    
    
    
    
    
    

    I use the term guy generically.

    Guy means people in general to lots of us

    ...and means man [ie. not me] to a lot of us.
    
    Lee

    
    In casual conversation, to many people, 'guy' refers to anyone.
    I've walked into a room (mixed sex crowd) and said 'Hi, guys, what's
    happening?"  But in this situation, wouldn't it have been more
    appropriate and professional to say, "Please move your car forward,
    consider the next *customer*"?  In this context, I think it would
    have been a better way to handle it.

    Rita
    

    RE .43 So how much 'professionalism' do you expect in a gas station?

    re.43.  I was "amazed" at the professionalism at this one Mobil
    station in Marlboro (near Forest Street).  I wasn't there 30 seconds
    when an attendant came out to fill up my car.  I also noticed the
    next car that pulled up.  Again, within 30 seconds, another attendant
    came out.  They were both dressed in a uniform that was neat and
    clean (as can be) and POLITE!!  I said outloud, "what a great place
    to work, huh?  You must have great management here" and the attendant
    just nodded in approval.  I presented my Mobil credit card (no moaning
    here like in other gas stations) and I drove away a very satisfied
    customer.
    
    As dirty and un-gratifying this job can get, I believe that this
    particular gas station out-weighed others I've been too.  And the
    attendants looked and acted professional.  I'll go there again.
    
    Cathy
    
    P.S. I've been to other Mobil stations and they are NOT alike. 
    One station (which no longer exists and now I know why) wouldn't
    even accept their own credit card.  
    
    Now, back to our regularly schedule commericals....

    I am a guy (except when the facilities for males are labelled "Guys")
    and I do not take offense when referred to as such in a group or
    whatever.  However, I hate the greeting "Well, men..." (although
    I have been one of "Men of Alpha Phi Omega [, loyal brothers, we..."]
    (what can you do)).
    
    I'm too cheap and in too much of a hurry to let some employee of
    the gas station pump my gas.  At least now that it's unleaded and
    not diesel that goes in the tank.  Diesel--faaah!  the nastiest
    smell, and it gets on your hands no matter what you do and stays
    there for days.  But you can hardly find places that will pump
    diesel for you; it's usually on the self serve side.