Every time I go get gas with Finn, he makes me tell him the same story. The gas station story.
He finds this story funny but when it happened, I was terrified.
Most of you know that my dad had a gas station when I was a kid, and I used to work there.
I pretty much did everything there. Pump gas, clean cars…. you name it, I did it.
From the age of 6 to 22, I worked at the gas station, but there was a 3 year period when I did not work at the gas station.
It was probably from the age of 17 to around 20.
My dad and I were arguing and my mom didn’t think it was healthy for us to be work together.
So during that period, I found other jobs like selling shoes and waiting tables.
One day, I went to the gas station to drop off something for my parents. Whenever I’d go to the station, I would fill up my tank and this day it was no different.
As I was filling up the tank, my dad walked over to me and began to remind me about something. We began to argue and I can’t remember the argument but I remember I was very mad.
I got into the car and sped off. All of a sudden I heard a loud noise, I stopped the car, and saw gasoline flying all over the place.
I got out of the car and noticed that the gas hose was still in my tank. When I drove off, I had ripped part of the gas hose off of the tank.
My heart was beating and I was very scared. I didn’t know how to turn off the gas pump and tons of gallons of gasoline was flying all over.
My dad was going bananas. He was yelling and screaming at me and then ran into the station and shut off the main power supply to the gas pumps.
I stood there and began to grab some sand to begin to pour over the gas to help pick it up.
My dad looked at me and yelled, “Get out of here.”
For a while, I was so nervous when I filled up my tank and I was always double checking to make sure the hose was not attached to the car.
That event left me a little traumatized.
Events like this one can affect people and cause them to have life altering fears.
In dentistry we see it all the time. The patient has a negative dental experience and now becomes fearful of going to the dentist.
At Dente, we recognize that a huge part of the American population has a fear of going to the dentist. So we offer Anxiety Free Dentistry.
We consistently hear that their Anxiety Free appointment was their best appointment ever.
If you are anxious about going to the dentist and would like an Anxiety Free consultation please call 773-292-1911.
Floss like a madman! Emilio “Pump The Gas” Couret