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As has been widely reported, a new law went into effect January 1 allowing rural Oregon counties with populations under 40,000 to keep pumps open at night on a self-serve basis. People are pretty freaked about it.
Specifically, the legislation aims to make it easier for people traveling through small towns at night to fill up without an attendant present.
At least one Hood River gas station, Height's Fuel Stop, has taken advantage of the law change. And manager Kerry Walker says it's true that habit-stuck Oregonians are reluctant to learn how to fuel their cars.
"It's mostly the older crowd that are set in their ways and grew up not having to do it," Walker says, "It's really easy, but if nobody is there to explain it they don't know what button to push."
"Some people are happy and excited to be able to do it," she says. "Some have suits on and don't want to get out of their car and smell like gas."
For the suit-wearing, pumping-my-own-gas-is-beneath-me type there may be little hope of education. But, for all other Oregonians, here is a one minute long video of David—the attendant at the gas station down the street from the Willamette Week office—patiently describing how to pump your own gas.
"Set it," he says, "pick up the nozzle, put it inside and squeeze. That's all. That's it."
