Chevron

Memories of my first year at SCAD come to mind whenever I visit this gas station. The Chevron on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Oglethorpe Avenue is the place for dorm-trapped, car-less freshman to forage for "food" when the unappetizing Cafe SCAD is closed as usual.

When I was a photography major living at Weston House, I spent a lot of late nights at Bergen Hall. Only two establishments offered something to eat on the path between Weston and Bergen. Chevron and Carlito's Mexican Restaurant. Since I was spending all of my money on archival fiber paper and medium format film, it couldn't always be "taco night."

The Chevron is a standard gas station store. It's cramped and doesn't offer anything very interesting or unusual aside from maybe Bawls Energy Drink, a highly caffeinated Sprite-style beverage that comes in a blue glass bottle. This was a hit with the freshman crowd pulling all-nighters. Everything else is average. Day-old "hunk-a-pizza" slices under heat lamps, every salty snack you shouldn't be eating, and often a long line due to lottery ticket sales. Not much going on, until you step outside.

A convenient set of deck tables and chairs are arranged outside the storefront where some classic late-night Savannah characters like to hang out. That one guy you thought was going to rob you yesterday, a bag lady curbing her methadone craving with some circus peanuts, three old men mumbling at every woman in a ten foot radius.

However, there are some nice people outside the Chevron as well. One night my girlfriend and I saw a golden retriever running free a few blocks from the Chevron on Oglethorpe Ave. We both tried to calm it down and keep it from running in traffic, and it ended up hiding in the bushes in the median outside Oglethorpe House. We stopped a SCAD Security SUV and asked if he would help, only to hear "I don't touch no wild dog." We decided there wasn't much we could do until we got the number for the Humane Society or Save-a-Life, so we headed back to the dorm. We saw a dog barking inside a parked truck while we crossed the Chevron parking lot. The trucker came out and noticed we were looking at his dog. We told him about the dog running loose, and he called his girlfriend who happened to be a volunteer with the Humane Society. So yes, I can say something good did come out of this particular store.

The Chevron is still apparently the place to go for emergency food and/or cigarettes during 11 a.m. class breaks, so I suppose it lives up to its name as a convenience store. If not for its convenient location near Crites and Bergen Halls, I say don't bother coming to this place. Unless you've lost your dog.

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