HAYSVILLE – The Vickers Petroleum Service Station on Main Street in Haysville serves as a fantastic piece of history and is currently the home of the City of Haysville Development Office.

Years ago, however, it was one of several gas stations within sight of each other. It also was where Don Davidson, formerly of Haysville, worked.

He was still in high school when he started there. He graduated in 1957, but continued to work at Vickers until 1961.

Davidson was a young man at the time. He is now retired and widowed, but you can still see the teenager who started working there when he recalls his days at Vickers.

He is quick to answer what he liked most about the job.

“The people. I never met a stranger. And they taught me that,” he said.

Vickers wanted its employees to be very friendly when customers pulled in. Full-service was the standard at the time, and gas station attendants had a list of services to ask customers about.

“You immediately waited on them,” Davidson said. “You’d ask, ‘Fill ‘er up?’ And they’d say, ‘Put a dollar in.’” Oil check? Tire check? Fill the radiator? Vacuum the car?

“We never did it without asking,” Davidson said. “We prided ourselves on our work. We probably pumped 1,000 gallons per day.”

Whenever they lifted the hood, they would check all fluids. A tire gauge in the pocket was a key part of the uniform.

Davidson recalled the other service stations nearby: A Phillips 66 to the north, Standard Oil on the corner of Grand and Trout, Mobile near the bank, and Champlin to the east.

The lessons that Davidson learned have served him throughout his life.

“I learned about dealing with the public. Courtesy was probably the biggest thing. It still applies to me today,” he said.

He was born in Missouri. His dad farmed near Marshfield, which is east of Springfield. His uncle got his father a job at Boeing, which had 30,000 employees at the time. Davidson worked at Boeing for a short time, as well.

Davidson eventually went to work at Midway Auto Supply, which is now Poorman Auto Supply on Seneca. In 1978, he started his own auto parts store in Halstead. He ran the store for 33 years.

“I loved every minute.

I never worked a day. It was pure pleasure. I built some great relationships,” he said.

“Homeless” is how Davidson describes himself today. In 2020, he sold his house and bought an RV and truck. Now home is wherever he wants it to be. “I’m enjoying the heck out of it,” he said.

He has visited every national park in the Rocky Mountains. He goes from Texas to Canada, and he says he has been to everything west of the Mississippi River. Most of the winter is spent in Arizona. Davidson spent eight years in a one-room school in Missouri. There were two boys and two girls, and he recently has reconnected with his male classmate. “I hadn’t seen him in 60 years. We had a great time,” Davidson said.

During his time with Vickers, he got to know all of the top people in the company. He also worked at a gas station by the original NuWay in Wichita.

One woman brought her car in every Sunday for him to wash.

Davidson was back in Haysville a couple of weekends ago, visiting the Vickers station for the Derby-Haysville American Legion car show. He spent much of his day sharing stories with anybody who wanted to listen, including this reporter. He shared stories about a runaway tractor tire that came crashing through, and the time a customer drove off with the pump handle still in the car. That caused a fire.

“It didn’t hurt anything. I don’t think it even burned the paint off the pump. I remember putting the fire out,” Davidson said.

He also recalled visiting in 2007 when the building had been restored.

Constructed in 1954, it was about the only thing on the east side of Main Street that survived the 1999 tornado. It was the first Vickers station to feature the famous “batwing” design, although Davidson quickly points out that it actually is a hyperbolic paraboloid.

“I was so happy to see it put on the National Register of Historic Places. It started my whole business life,” he said. “I got my PhD right here.”