Dave Petitt (left, facing camera) coordinates monthly breakfast get togethers attended by former employees of the gas station he once owned. Steve D’Autolo, a member of this Breakfast Club, sits to Petitt’s left.
They have known each other for decades, in some cases more than 50 years, and meet monthly at the Evergreen Dairy Bar in Southampton Township on Route 70.
These South Jersey men with their own breakfast club share a history that began in 1968 and centers on a gasoline station, when a gallon of regular sold for 34 cents and the New Jersey minimum wage for most workers was $1.45 an hour.
That was the year Dave Petitt's father, Mortimer Petitt, died, so rather than teach geography and history and earn the $5,400 annual salary as planned, he took over his father's gas station, a business once known as Petitt's Atlantic but was renamed Petitt's Arco by 1968. It was located near the Routes 70 and 73 circle in Marlton, about where Joe Canal's Discount Liquor Store is today.
A photo of Dave Petitt during his early days at the gas station once owned by his father.
"The gas station job would pay more money," Petitt, who now lives in Southampton Township, said of his decision.
That year, and in the following years, he hired local workers to fill gasoline tanks and check the oil. Men from that group continue to meet and share the common bond of having worked at the service station.
One of those hires was Ray D'Autolo, who worked part time at the gas station and said in an interview that working at Petitt's Arco was almost always fun despite its location "on the coldest corner" of the old Marlton Circle.
Members of the breakfast club (clockwise from left, Ray D’Autolo, Pete Kricken, Barry Foster and Larry Holden) catch up at Evergreen Dairy Bar in Southampton Township.
"Those winds could be brutal. But we often joked around," explained D'Autolo, who now lives in Magnolia.
"We loved the peanuts," he continued, referring to how Petitt added selling peanuts to the gas station's repertoire long before Wawa essentially took over the buy-gas-buy-food market.
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Ray's brother, Steve D'Autolo of Cinnaminson, said working at the gas station helped him pay for college.
Pete Kricken, another former gas station employee, said working at the gas station was the opposite of all work and no play, even on the hectic summer Saturdays or days that a Philadelphia sports team was playing at home.
"It was a lot of laughs and a lot of fun," Kricken, of Marlton, said, noting that the gas station also occasionally sold hot dogs.
Ray King (left) and Mike Southwick, members of the breakfast club, talk about recent trips each has taken.
Dave's son, Dan Petitt, told 70and73.com that the good times at the gas station extended to his generation.
"As a kid…the station was a magical place to go to," Dan said. He also recalled that it seemed his father knew someone wherever we went. "I remember thinking as a kid it felt like he was famous because we could never just go out. …Inevitably, (he would end up) talking to someone."
Michael Southwick said he was recruited to work for Petitt's Arco after briefly working at an Exxon in Mount Laurel. He said he learned several life lessons from his stint at Petitt's that he used for the rest of his professional life as a salesperson.
"I credit him with showing me how to respect customers and how to build good relationships," said Southwick, who now lives in Shamong.
Steve D'Autolo, who said he went on to become a police officer in Mercer County and is now retired from the force and lives in Cinnaminson, called his friendship with Dave "a big part of his life." He added that when his daughter got married, he invited many of the breakfast group to his daughter's wedding.
By 1976, many Petitt's Arco employees had moved on to other jobs, but would stop by the gas station.
One breakfast club member, Larry Holden, continued working as a mechanic at other gas station locations and now lives in Marlton. Ray King, who now lives in Shamong, is still interested in cars. Barry Foster became a master carpenter and now lives in Marlton.
Dave also said others were Bob Christy, who was a full-time mechanic at the gas station, and Bob's brother, Don Christy, who worked part time at the gas station after serving in Vietnam. Tom Angelucci, a former Stratford mayor, also is a member of the breakfast club. Most of the breakfast club's members are retired.
The look of the gas station the Petitt family owned also changed through the years. In the late 1970s, Dave said he added a sign that displayed birthday wishes, football game predictions and the occasional political statement. Another change came in 1985 when the gas station became a Shell gas station.
The following year, rumors of a sea change — removing the Routes 70 and 73 circle — began to circulate, Petitt recalled. At the time, he was quoted in a news story that he wanted to start pumping the brakes on his professional life and was relinquishing ownership of the gas station to a non-family member.
Petitt told a 70and73.com reporter at a rainy Saturday session of the breakfast club that he still felt that way, but the removal of the circle and yet another gas station rent increase did not sit well with him. He had had enough.
On Dave and Petitt's Shell's last day in 1986, he and his station made the front page of a local newspaper. Petitt told a news reporter that he would miss his employees and customers.
The feeling was mutual. The same article that discussed Dave's leaving the gas station included a picture of the sign he had bought in the late 1970s, except now it read in part, "Thanks for the memories!! From your crew."
When Dave left the gas station, there was no Facebook to track life changes and no LinkedIn profiles to learn what jobs a former colleague might have landed. Dave said after selling the gas station, he worked at other gas stations and a few car dealerships in the area for about a decade before retiring.
Dave recalled the old station was demolished in the early 2000s to make room for the 70 and 73 overpass. He said within a few years of the overpass' completion, he and a handful of Petitt gas station colleagues met for breakfast monthly at Evergreen Dairy Bar to reminisce and catch up on each other's life events. Ten years later, they are still meeting once a month at Evergreen.
Evergreen owner Deborah Ware said she "loved" that the breakfast club men chose her establishment as their meeting spot, even if it means giving up a few tables for an extended period of time on busy Saturday mornings.
"He still has this large, close-knit group of friends, which I think is not only remarkable but rare," Dave's son, Dan, said. "This is not only remarkable but rare. Now that I am older than he was when he sold the station, I am truly impressed by this group of friends that have lasted 60-plus years."
If laughter truly is the best form of medicine, then this club would likely say they receive an ample dose. Club members admit sometimes they must share stories of sadness, such as the passing of a loved one.
However, more often, the conversations are lighthearted. On the recent rainy Saturday, bits and pieces about discussions about who is running for or is in office, recent or upcoming trips to Florida and other distant locales and sports, such as how the Philadelphia Eagles let the Super Bowl slip away this past year could be heard over the loud restaurant/ice cream stand's crowd.
The breakfast club men were asked why they continue to meet, since social media such as Facebook have made it easier to stay in touch.
"Those tools are wonderful things," Dave said. "But they are no substitute for getting together."
Dave said former employees who want to join the group can email him at dwpetitt43@gmail.com for the date and time of the next monthly breakfast.
