Josef sat at the piano<\/p>\n
He had set his hands on to the keys but was not playing<\/p>\n
At nine in the evening Hank Miller checked the cans of oil that were arranged in order on the rack between pumps two and three <\/i><\/p>\n
Rachel was hanging a print on the wall opposite her husband<\/p>\n
And yes I am having difficulty my love but do start playing your new piece <\/i><\/p>\n
Hank Miller had owned the gas station for twenty-one years and each evening after he had had supper in his tiny office he checked the cans of oil <\/i><\/p>\n
Sing Dover <\/i><\/p>\n
Sing Dover <\/i><\/p>\n
Sing Dover <\/i><\/p>\n
Rachel was admiring the fire grasses that grew in abundance on each side of the road<\/p>\n
Hank Miller was a small man who had been declared medically unfit for the army<\/p>\n
Do you think Hank Miller gave the gas pumps female names such as Jessie Betty and Marge?<\/i><\/p>\n
How should I know? <\/i><\/p>\n
Hank Miller had indeed named the three red pumps <\/i><\/p>\n
But he did not share their names <\/i><\/p>\n
Rachel climbed down from the chair<\/p>\n
There what do you think Josef? <\/i><\/p>\n
It looks good <\/i><\/p>\n
What is it called? <\/i><\/p>\n
Gas <\/i><\/p>\n
Gas? <\/i><\/p>\n
Yes Gas <\/i><\/p>\n
It was painted in 1940<\/i><\/p>\n
The gas pumps stand out like red sentinels <\/i><\/p>\n
But what of the road it vanishes into the dark woods <\/i><\/p>\n
Do you think it is an allegory? <\/i><\/p>\n
Possibly <\/i><\/p>\n
Life and death meeting at the gas station <\/i><\/p>\n
Maybe <\/i><\/p>\n
Get back to your piano <\/i><\/p>\n
Hank Miller spent twelve hours a day at the gas station and although business was on the wane he made a comfortable living <\/i><\/p>\n
It\u2019s all over my sweet Dover \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Move over you are finished now <\/i><\/p>\n
Is that your song?<\/i><\/p>\n
If only it was <\/i><\/p>\n
What do you think happened to Hank Miller?<\/i><\/p>\n
Nothing exciting \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Did he have a girl?<\/i><\/p>\n
Yes but she died in a boating accident <\/i><\/p>\n
He led a secluded life at the gas station then <\/i><\/p>\n
Seems so <\/i><\/p>\n
Was he ever robbed?<\/i><\/p>\n
Not to my knowledge but he kept his late father\u2019s gun in a drawer in the office<\/i><\/p>\n
But he never had to use it <\/i><\/p>\n
Legend has it that Bonnie and Clyde stopped at his gas station but they did nor rob it and only purchased some gum.<\/i><\/p>\n
So Hank Miller met Bonnie and Clyde <\/i><\/p>\n
So the story goes <\/i><\/p>\n
But he did not know who they were and like many customers he watched them as they drove away into the darkness of the woods<\/i><\/p>\n
Hank Miller was found dead in his office on the 12th<\/sup> of June 1951 by a couple of teenagers on a date<\/i><\/p>\n He had suffered a stroke <\/i><\/p>\n The same condition had killed his father in 1919<\/i><\/p>\n I think Hank knew that he was ill <\/i><\/p>\n Why do you say that? <\/i><\/p>\n Because for the last two years of his life he changed his route home <\/i><\/p>\n Really <\/i><\/p>\n Yes instead of turning left out of the gas station he began to turn right<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0Sing Dover <\/i><\/p>\n Sing Dover <\/i><\/p>\n Sing Dover<\/i><\/p>\n It\u2019s all over my sweet Dover\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n Move over you are finished now <\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Inspired by Edward Hopper’s painting Gas (1940)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Josef sat at the piano He had set his hands on to the keys but was not playing At nine in the evening Hank Miller checked the cans of oil that were arranged in order on the rack between pumps two and three Rachel was hanging a print on the wall opposite her husband And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}